Duty Bound
by firelutkar
Summary: Sometimes one has to make up their minds and walk down a path that has been forbidden to them. That is what happen to Ashlya and Mana, two sisters who disparately follow their father to Lazulis Island. And as it turns out the path they walk is already written in destiny. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1: Bonds

So yeah… this is my first fanfiction (I decided that I should start writing it too since I read so much of it XD that and there just isn't enough LS fanfiction XDD) Please tell me your thoughts!

I don't own The Last Story or its Characters. If I did then you'd see Lowell and Syrenne get married XD

Its rated M for what I plan in later chapters

Duty Bound

Chapter One: Bonds

"Wake up! It's time for breakfast and mom is getting impatient!"

The nagging voice wouldn't go away; it was like some kind of banshee, the bane to my dreams existence.

"Ugh, just let me sleep for 5 more minutes Mana." I groaned and curled deeper into my bed. I knew I needed to get up, but the warmth of my bed called for me. It was like this every morning in the winter but today was worse than usually.

"Today is an important day! You can't just stay asleep all day! Mom would have your hide!" It was the truth. Our mom was always very strict about getting up on time when there was a ceremony or festival. And today was the biggest one: The Fire Flower Festival. Try saying that five times fast! It was a festival to honor the dragon god that our small village worshipped. I pulled off my sheets and stepped onto the cold floor.

"I hate winter so much. It's too cold" I muttered to myself. "Ashlya hurry up!" I began brush my cocoa colored hair out at a slow pace. I did it to simply irritate my little sister Mana. She was a high paced type of person who always insisted on being on time for everything, a trait she inherited from our mom along with our mom's looks. Mana had beautiful cyan hair, violet eyes, and milky skin, a spitting image of our mom. Whereas I took after our dad, who was more of the go with the flow type and I took after his looks, with dark hair and tan skin from spending my days outdoors. He was the type to be late to his own party (which he was late to his wedding according to our mom). I pulled my hair into a simple bun and put a red dress on at the same time Mana ran into my room.

"Is that what you're wearing? Whatever, it'll have to do. We don't have time for you to change into something else." She said while grabbing my hand and dragging me out of my room.

"Why was it taking you so long to get up and ready?" Our mom, with a stern look on her elegant face, asked as we came barreling down the stairs.

"It was cold?" It was a tentative question to answer her question. In truth the only time I felt alive was when I was asleep, where fantasy and reality mixed. I was having a vivid dream before I was yanked back to the real world, and now it was just a fleeting memory.

"Well whatever, as long as you're awake now. Here's breakfast." She handed me a bowl of porridge and some eggs.

"Hey mom…? Do you think it'd be ok if I went with dad to Lazulis Island? I really want to go." I had been begging for weeks when I learned that my dad was to go be the general for the knights and I received another stern look from her for asking again.

"You know you can't go. It's too dangerous." That's what she said every time. It's too dangerous, you'll be a burden on your father, there's no place for you to live, excuses she would say to keep me close. The truth was she wanted me to stay in the village and get married to our neighbor's son, a stuck up boy with a violent history, but a high up family by the name of Colon. We couldn't get along to save our lives and I was far more likely to beat him with a stick till he was bloody than to marry him.

"I'd rather kill him the let him put his dick in me…" I grumbled lowly. My mom didn't hear, but Mana did and she started sniggering. We shared the same hatred towards him after he punched her in the face. Our mom overlooked the incident, saying the boy had done it on accident, but our father refused to rest until he made sure that Colon wouldn't hurt his daughters again. Colon refused to sit down for a week, so if I had to guess he got the belt to the bum. I chuckled at the thought just as our dad came in. Asthar, general of the knights in the empire, walked in with a grin on his face. His spirits were high today with the jovial atmosphere in the village rubbing off on him.

"Are you prepared for the festival, daddy?" Mana asked him, almost bouncing off her seat in the kitchen. When it came to our dad the 19 year old girl became a toddler. I was no better though. It was one of the rare times that father would be home long enough for us to spend time with him before he was sent to the island to work under Count Arganan, a rising power in the empire. I was happy for my father since traveling and teaching knights was his love, second only to his wife. But my gut feeling was to not let him leave, that something tragic would happen. I brushed the feeling of half-heartily.

"I'm most excited to be able to go, my dear Mana!" He bellowed happily to her while ruffling my hair that I worked oh so hard on. I pouted and redid my bun and he laughed and my attempts to look civilized. "Now what's this here? Ashlya in a dress instead of gear? _And_ sporting a bun instead of a sword? What sorcery is this?" My pout increased as he teased me more. If he was in a teasing mood then he better be prepared to get what he deserves.

"Well _sir_, I am a lady and should be treated as such. I have accepted Sir Colon's marriage proposal. I do hope you'll be able to make it to the wedding." I flashed him a lady's smile and had to refrain from laughing on the spot when his eyes got big with surprise.

"W-what? I thought you hated the boy! He's not good enough for you!" Anything that involved Colon got him riled up. I'm surprised he didn't try to kill him when my mom mentioned he wanted my hand in marriage. I decided to tell him I was joking before the boy got his head ripped off, as funny as that'd be. I began laughing.

"Not so fun being teased is it?" I stuck my tongue out and Mana was laughing so hard sound wasn't coming out. "So dad, change of subject, can I go with you to Lazulis Island?" It was an instant mood kill.

"You know your mom doesn't want you to come." He went into "general mood", as I call it, where arguing wouldn't do shit. I dropped the subject again. At this rate I'll just have to sneak out, I mused to myself. The rest of breakfast continued without conversation and we headed to the festival. This was one of the few outings that we got to go with our dad so we spent it by his side the whole time. The town square was the main area of the festival and that's where the food stands and games were. It was there I saw the one food that I would literally kill someone for: cotton candy. That's right. I'm 22 and horribly addicted to cotton candy. I hurried over to the vendor and gave him enough money for one along with a tip. I went back to the group to find Mana laughing heartily with our dad.

"Still obsessed with that sugar gunk sis?" "It's not gunk!" I shot back. "It's the ambrosia of the gods." I began to munch on my sugary snack.

"So dad, when are you leaving to go to the Island?" I turn my attention on our dad when Mana asked the question on both of our minds.

"Hhmmm… I wanted to tell you later tonight…" "Just tell us!" Mana was losing her patience, something that happened more often than not. "I leave after the festival." The bluntness of the statement hit me like a ton of bricks. "Why so soon?" I was in shock. It was unlike him to wait until the last minute to tell us when he was leaving.

The rest of the festival passed with me in a shocked state. Fireworks broke me out of my confusion, a signal that the festival was over. A signal that my father was about to leave us for an unknown amount of time. A signal that made me realize that I needed to do something quick. I decided was to be done and by the time we got in eye sight of our house I had the plan ironed out. I was going to pack my bags and follow my dad. No ifs, ors, or buts. As we entered the house I feigned fatigue and said a teary farewell then headed to my room. As I opened my door I looked around. It was a simply and cute room with what you'd normally find: a dresser with a vase of flowers, a vanity set with a large mirror decorated with carvings of angels, and a bed with soft sheets and treasured stuffed toys. I grabbed a bag out of my closet and began to stuff clothes into it of all varieties. Long sleeve shirts and shorts, dresses, tank tops, a warm cloak for traveling. I was so engrossed that I didn't hear my door open.

"Shit!" I jumped from my spot on the floor where I was shoving clothes into my bag. "Mana! What did I tell you about coming into my room without knocking?! You scared the life out of me!" "I want to go with you." Now Mana was never one to beat around the bush with what she wanted, but she was also never one to disobey our mom. That was my job. I gave her a look of confusion.

"How did you know I was planning on leaving? Maybe I was just trying to decide what to throw out" I challenged her assumption.

"You'd never throw out half the stuff in that bag. Those are your favorite things." Damn, she was good. "I already have my bag packed and ready to go. If we want to follow dad we have to hurry so get your things packed. I have toiletries and food prepared. It'll take us about a week to get to Lazulis city so hurry up." Always with her schedules that girl. I huffed. Pushing the rest of my things into my bag and grabbing my sword along with sharpening stones I strapped everything one. Since I was young my father insisted that one of his daughters be able to defend the family in his absence.

"Well then let's be off." Together we left our home started to walk on the path that would lead us to our destiny.


	2. Chapter 2: Damn Caves

Woot! Chapter two! I was going to post this yesterday but I got distracted by job applications and cats… So many cats… All wanted attention XD Well anyways here it is! Shout out to MusicalTides and Naarastiikeri for the reviews! Thank you both so much! And I thank anyone else who has been reading my story! I plan on updating this story as much as possible for all of you wondering.

Disclaimer: I don't own it. I wish I did cause if I did Therius would've been a playable character.

Duty Bound

Chapter Two: Damn Caves, Always Crawling With Disgusting Things

We had been walking for almost three days straight. Three days. Without stopping. Three. Whole. Days. All because Mana insisted that we stay within range of our father, who had been travelling at a grueling pace. I was well passed exhausted and felt like I was about to faint. The only good thing about it was that it was getting warmer as we headed farther south.

"Mana, we can't keep this pace up. I need to rest. **We need to rest!**" Mana looked as bad as I felt, with dark circles under her plum colored eyes.

"Dad is doing it just fine." Her voice was strained. I began to walk to a tree that provided shade from the intense heat.

"We can catch up later. How will we defend ourselves if we get attacked right now? We're both too exhausted to do that, so let's take a break, ok?" I sat down under the large oak tree and relaxed.

"I don't know how dad does it" She said with a small frown. This was a hitch in her plan and if there was one thing that bothered my detailed orientated sister it was hitches in plans.

"He's used to these things. It's not like we can't get to Lazulis by ourselves. I'll take first watch so rest up Mana. Also I think he's stopping at a town to pick something up, so we should get to the city before him anyways." I watched as she dozed off under the oak and began thinking. _How will dad react when he found out we followed us. We'll need a place to stay. _My face scrunched up_. We should have thought this through a little better. _I combed my fingers through my hair and sighed._ It's gotten too long. I need to cut it._ I picked up my sword and began sharpening it when the thought it hit me. _I'll join the knights! How had I not thought of that before? I'm sure there are other women in the count's knight services. Now what to do with Mana?_ I pondered the thought. _Maybe a maid? Castles tend to need those and she was always good with house hold chores. I should ask her opinion when she woke up._ The sun began to set as Mana woke up.

"How long was I asleep?" She began to rub the sleep from her eyes.

"About 4 hours. You should sleep longer." The suggestion was shrugged off by Mana and I decided to take my turn in the dream world.

"Don't sleep too long. We still have to catch back up with dad." I barely caught what she said as I fell asleep. When I woke up Mana had made some food out of the supplies we brought and had a small fire started.

"How did you make a fire?" I didn't remember grabbing any fire starters.

"Well…" She hesitated for a moment but continued "I started learning magic? Don't tell mom, ok?" Our mom had a strange dislike for the magical world that not even our dad could figure out. It was no small wonder she was so nervous.

"No problem, little sis. I promise I won't tell" I grinned at her happily. I had always encouraged her to try new things and magic was definitely new. "What all have you learned?"

"Not much to be honest." She pouted and grumbled that it took six tries to get the fire going. "The only magic that I can learn quickly is star magic and basic healing. We don't have many tomes in the village so I've been relaying on dad to get me some whenever he returns from his trips." She began to frown. I had to chuckle at her expression.

"They say that everyone has an element that they relate to easiest. Yours must be lighting. I would suggest focusing on that" I gave her an energetic smile. "So you ready to go?" I began to stand up and Mana followed suit, looking much happier after my encouraging words.

"Yeah! At the pace we've been going we should get there by tomorrow!" A grin was plastered to her face as we continued on. We continued our mission to follow our father to Lazulis and as we walked the path got narrower and darker until it led to a cave.

"Oh god, why?" Mana groaned. I had to agree with her on this one. Nothing was worse than a damp, dark, dank cave.

"C'mon, Mana. We have to go through here. It's the only way to Lazulis City." With my sword in hand I stepped into the cave. _Ugh, it's wet in here…_ Mana followed after me while tugging at a strain a cyan hair, a nervous tick she had.

"Ashlya, do we have go through here? It smells disgusting" There was no denying that but nodded yes. Something in this cave wasn't right. A horn disturbed the quiet.

"Reptids! Fuck! This could not get worse!" I grabbed Mana's hand and began to run, almost dragging her with me. "We have to get to the end of this cave! NOW!" My screaming got her running. Reptids began to surround us and I swung my sword, effectively gutting one. As its entrails came pouring out, slick and oddly colored, I felt the bile rise in my throat. It was screaming for help, a gurgled sound, and then it suddenly stopped as the life left it. My first kill. The reptids continued their onslaught, not even noticing the guts that had started picking up dirt from the ground. I slashed at another one and blood began to spew out of its throat, as its mouth gaped like a fish in an attempt to get air. I had to remind myself that it was "kill or be killed". Mana was casting lightning spells and healing circles for me to jump into when the wounds got too bad. Looking around I quickly realized that there was no way the two of us could take out all of our enemies. I cut a path out of reptids, jumping over the fresh corpse that I had created, for us and began to run, leaving behind bodies of the dead and dying. We didn't stop until we couldn't hear the reptids anymore. I stopped to catch my breath and looked around. _What a weird place. It's like this place is infested with reptids. I wonder why the count hasn't done anything about it. _A flash of memory brought back the image of the reptid, its guts on the ground, as it clawed for life and I began to heave.

"Let's keeping moving before they find us" Mana whispered as she rubbed my back. She was handling the gore better than I was. I nodded in agreement and stood back up. It'd be bad if the two of us were caught. Reptids were known for outnumbering trespassers and taking them out by sheer number. We walked until I felt a breeze.

"The exit must be near. Let's go." When the air hit my face I was almost knocked back. "Damn this wind is strong." Grabbing my sister's hand we walked out of the cave. I said a pray to the fallen and for our safe passage.

"Hey, look at this Ashlya!" I followed my sister's pointer finger to see what she was talking about and gasp. There were at least ten other exits littering the cliffs. "These reptids have been busy" stated Mana. I nodded dumbly. I thought the infestation was bad but this went past my worse assumptions. I felt a tug at my hand as Mana continued on the path to the city.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Mana you should become a maid at the castle!"

"Why?" She raised an eyebrow to my statement.

"Because then we won't be a burden on Dad. Castles are usually looking for maids right?" She nodded at the reasoning.

"Fine. What will you do? I doubt you'd be good as a maid" she teased.

"I'm going to try to be a knight. If not that then maybe a barmaid!" I laughed "Speaking of taverns and such, we should probably look for one for to stay in and wash up before talking to the Count."

"That sounds amazing" Mana sighed. "Look! It's the city!" I looked at what was before me. We had never gotten the chance to really go to a major city due to our mother's protectiveness and what I saw left me in awe. As we stepped through the gates my jaw dropped. Shops were everywhere, little houses squished together, vendors making it seem like it was a festival lined the street. And in the middle was Lazulis Castle, a place that was huge looking even though we were so far away. The air was much warmer on this island than in the mountain village, where it didn't warm up until the middle of summer. Here, even though it was still the middle of winter, it felt like it was late spring.

"How did someone who's just a count get such a nice castle" I whispered to Mana.

"No clue. But let's go find a place to stay."

The first we came across was a shady looking bar called the Flame and Lizard. After a very quick discussion we decided to not stay there. _We_ _would've probably gotten stabbed_. I thought darkly. The next tavern was a cute thing in front of Central Plaza. The owner was a large and quiet man, but seemed dependable and his daughter was an energetic girl, about the same age as Mana, maybe a little older.

"Hello! My name is Ariela. How may I help you?" The girl, Ariela, smiled happily at us, despite the blood covering our clothes. _She must be used to these types of things_. The thought was as amusing as it was frightening.

"I was wondering if you have any rooms available." My tone polite and soft, something my mom beat in me if I was asking for services.

"Well the top floor has been completely rented out, but there is a small room down here" She pointed to a door in the back corner of the tavern. "If that's ok with you lot." I nodded and headed over money to cover for a week.

"There are two beds and a bath behind that door." She motioned at the door in the back of our room. "If you need me just yell and I'll be there in a wink. More than likely I'll either be dealing with Lowell or taking care of Warren, the boy my father took in." I put my bags down on a bed once Ariela left and headed to take a bath. _Dear god, I feel disgusting._ I began scrubbing my body in an attempt to remove the dried blood on my skin. I poured water from a bucket to wash the spuds away. The water went from clear to a dark red brown, the smell of iron sickening to the senses. Small scratches showed on my skin that I hadn't noticed before. _These must be from the fight earlier. I don't even remember getting them. _I made sure that they were cleaned out to prevent infection and sunk into the bath area to relax. I didn't realize that I had dozed off until Mana joined me in the bath.

"Some of the people that rented the whole upstairs are in the lounge area. Do you want to meet them?

"Sure. Just let me get dressed. What are they like?"

"Well one is a really quiet and nice lady and the other is a handsome looking man. He said I have beautiful hair." A faint blush graced her face.

"So he's a flirt?"

"Yeah." She noticed the look of dislike on my face. "They're really nice and both of them are mages, like me." No wonder she was so interested. She was probably wanted to them to help her with controlling her magic. I got out of the bath, dried off, and got dressed in a black tank top and some gray shorts.

"Ok, let's meet them then." She beamed at me with excitement and jumped out of the bath to get dressed in a light green dress. As we walked into the main room I scanned the room. There were the usual drunk customers that you'd see in a tavern, the owner and Ariela, and a man flirting with a pretty lady who was drinking tea. This was an odd choice of drink in a tavern. Mana made a beeline to the couple and began chatting to them.

"Mirania, Lowell, this is my sister Ashlya." She gestured towards the man, Lowell, and the lady, Mirania.

"Why, hello there dear. What beauty you and your sister have." Mana blushed at his smooth voice and obvious flirting, but I wasn't buying it. He screamed of the type that flirted with any girl in a ten mile radius. And they probably fell in love with him immediately too, with his masculine face, well-built body, and sharp eyes. He had an interesting X shaped scar on his neck and soft looking blond hair. A naturally good looking man. But a flirt. There was no way to deny it as I watched him flirt with my little sister. It took everything in me to not punch him. I turned my attention on Mirania next. It was like she had a calm aura about her the filled the area around her_. _

"So why did you two decide to come to Lazulis city?" Her voice was soft and motherly, the type that made you want to say everything on your mind. I sat down at her table and decided to tell her why we were her, despite me. Something about her made me want to ask for her opinion about everything, like I had known her all my life.

"So you're here to find your dad? Well I think in a few days the knights are having a parade in honor of the Count's niece's engagement. You might see him then." That explained why there were so many people in town. "I think by then the rest of our group should be here, so you'll get to meet them soon." The thought of meeting them made me smile a little. I wished everyone in the world was a nice as her. It would save a lot of problems in the world_. _I watched in silence as Mirania began to eat… and eat… and eat… When she had finished her tenth plate of food I decided to sate my curiosity.

"How can you eat so much?" I chuckled at her confused smile.

"Oh, this isn't a lot. I usually eat about thirty-five plates before I'm full." My eyes got wide at the thought. _How can she possibly keep her figure?! _I chuckled happily and decided to change the subject.

"So what type of magic do you and Lowell use?" My curiosity was in full throttle when it came to her.

"Well Lowell uses Ice and I use Nature type. I'm the healer of the group. We also have Yurick, our fire mage. I heard your sister is an inspiring mage by the way. She asked me to help her with her magic but our elements are so different that it would be hard to teach her anything but healing magic." Her face fell into a small frown of disappointment.

"I'm sure she'd be happy with that. What is the rest of your group like?" The fact that she was willing to teach her anything made me happy. It was rare that a mage would be willing to teach for free.

"Well there's Dagran, who's our leader. He's very dependable and strong. Then there's Zael, who's been by Dagran's side since the beginning. He's one of the most loyal people I have ever met. Syrenne is loud but she's very courageous and trustworthy once you get to know her. But don't get stuck drinking with her or you won't stop until either dawn or until the bar runs out of booze. It depends on when she starts." Her smile was so bright that it made me excited to meet the rest of them.

"Well I think I'm going to head to bed and sleep off this journey. I'll see you tomorrow Miss Mirania."

"Good night. And there's no need for the formality. We're all friends here." Her soft spoken nature made me just want to hug the girl and I smiled again at her as I left to my room and curled under the covers, to drifted back into the world of dreams. 


	3. Chapter 3: Bandits And Such

Aha! Chapter three is finally ready! Thanks once again to MusicalTides and Naarastiikeri for the reviews. I tried to add more action in my story (hopefully it's not too short still) and I'm sure you noticed that it's a lot longer. I'm hoping to make most of my chapters about this length from now on if I can (knock on wood). And thank you everyone that has been reading this story! It makes me really happy when I get on my sad looking netbook and see that so many people have read it :3 so thanks for the support everyone! And Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

Disclaimer: I do not own the last story, its characters or plot, etc. I really wish I did however.

THIS CHAPTER IN MANA'S PERSPECTIVE!

Chapter 3: Bandits and Awkward Conversations

The day had started like any other: I woke up before Ashlya, got ready for the day, attempted to wake Ashlya up, failed, and went to eat breakfast with Mirania and Lowell. We had been at the tavern for a few days now and according to Lowell the rest of their group should be arriving soon. I went back to our room to try to wake my sister again only to find that she was already up and dressed.

"Took you long enough." I teased gently. She was never much of a morning person. I watched enviously as she brushed through her long brown her. I had always wished that I had inherited our father's brown hair instead of the cyan color of our mom's. The bright color stood out too much and had caused a lot of mocking throughout my younger years, causing me to become even more withdrawn and shy. I probably would never make friends if it wasn't for Ashlya since she had such an outgoing personality. That and the fact that she would beat up anyone that bullied me. At least we inherited the same purple eyes, signifying that we were siblings. She pulled it into a high pony tail and looked at me.

"You ready to explore the town?" She ignored my light mock about her inability to wake up in the morning and grinned while pulling her boots on.

"I've been ready. You need to eat breakfast before we go, though."

"Fine." It was almost like she was whining. If someone didn't remind her to eat though she probably wouldn't, a bad habit she had whenever she was doing something that excited her. She exited the room and got porridge from Ariela, scarfed it down and ran out the door all in within five minutes. I sighed to myself and ran after her. When I caught up with her she was holding her stomach and cringing.

"Cramp?" She nodded at my question and I shook my head at her impatience.

"You know you have to wait after eating or else this will happen. Here." She pouted at my mothering and I handed her some medicine out of a pouch full of herbs and such that Mirania had been teaching me with. She swallowed it and waited on a bench for the pain to subside. After about ten minutes she was back up on her feet and started walking.

"I heard this is where the arena is, where you can fight for cash. We can do that if we're ever bored or out of money" Ashlya pointed at a location on the map that Ariela had graciously given us.

"It looks like they also have an artisan's market right next to it! We could stop by t…" the rest of my sentence was cut off by screaming. Ashlya managed to grab one of the running citizens to question him. And what he said was shocking. According to the man there was a monster running rampant outside the city gates and there were still people out there, trapped by the unearthly thing. We began to sprint out of the city to help save some of the trapped people.

"We're never going to get the see the city are we?" I droned towards Ashlya. She just smirked and kept running. When we got to the clearing where people said the monster was I immediately understood why so many people were running. It was at white tiger with a strange blue glow about it. It would be considered beautiful if it wasn't trying to kill the group that was attempting to drive it off.

"Well let's not just stand here! We have to help! There's kids still trapped." Ashlya called out to me, knocking me out of my observations. A man with an eye patch was trying to lead the children out while the other three where attempting to distract it, but as soon as the beast knocked down a guy with a strange light coming from his arm, it lost interest in the other two and went toward the kids.

"It would probably not be good if I used my offensive magic with the kids still here, so I'll make heal circles. You go and try to knock that beast down." I explained my game plan with my sister and we jumped into the fray. The group of fighters looked surprised by the sudden additions, but quickly fell back into step. I charged up my healing spell while the others dodged the sharp claws and fangs of the monstrous tiger. I watched as the lady using two blades slice at the creature and miss. It used her stumble to tear into her arm, and her arm quickly became slick with blood.

"There now, hold on to me. Don't be afraid" The man with silver hair picked up the first boy to take him to safety. _One down, one to go. _

"Yeah, don't be afraid of creepy eye patch kid. He won't bite." I sniggered at the red head's comment and would've started bawling at the kid remark when he called her "Crazy lady" but the severity of the moment kept me from doing so. It didn't stop Ashlya from laughing though. Well up until the monster threw her against the base of the mountain and blood began to pour out of the back of her head. I finished the incantation and the white circle appeared around me. Ashlya jumped into it as soon as she got back on her feet and the magic began to do its work. Her skin began to mend, leaving only drying blood and the faintest of scars. She readied her blade and entered the battle once more, slashing at the brute. I glanced over at the silver haired man who was trying to get the kids to safety.

"Alright, you're the last one. Let's get you out of here." He hoisted the second boy up to carry him out. _He's surprisingly strong for the way he looks_ I mused to myself.

"Ah would you look at that! Kids make him get all protective. How cute." The lady joked while battling. _Amazing how they can focus on so many things. Ashlya's just barely making a mark and they haven't even needed to get healed. We have a long way to go. _Despite how much training we both had received from our father, we had no real battle experience, unlike this group.

"I can hear you, Syrenne." The silver headed man yelled back. _Syrenne….. Where have I heard that name before…? I wonder if these people are part of Mirania and Lowell's group. If so that means that the blond haired one is Zael, Dagran is the brown haired one, Syrenne is the double blade user, and Yurick is the one carrying the kids. _The puzzle of who these well trained people were was coming together. _I wonder if Ashlya has figured it out yet._ As the last child was carried to safety I started to charge a lightning attack. _It's time to go offensive._

"Argh! That's going to leave a mark! I've never seen a monster like this." Syrenne shouted out.

"Well we have only just a arrived." Yurick shot back at her.

"Very good, Yurick. Damn, is everything on this island crazy?!"

The tiger then directed its attention to me. _Shit! _I stopped my charging and threw knifes, a weapon I used when I couldn't use magic, but I wasn't quick enough. It threw me against one of the columns that were in the field, knocking my breath out and my vision went black as the column crumbled onto me. My ears were ringing by the time my sight returned and my head felt like it was going to burst as blood began to trickle down it but I ignored it and drug myself out of the wreckage then activated my spells charge again. While I charged I watched who I assumed was Dagran attack the beast with such grace that left me breathless. He was as good as my father, and that wasn't something that happened often. He sliced, dodged, rolled, all so fluidly; I was mesmerized by it. I shook my head to clear my thoughts so I could focus on my chants. A fireball hit the monster, causing it to fall back. I used this moment to cast my lightning bolt spell at it, stunning it. During this time the others surrounded it and wailed on it until it could not take anymore. It began to run towards Zael and he braced for the attack that never happened. The tiger, shrouded in its blue aura, leaped over Zael onto the ledge of a cliff well across the gorge. It took one last glance at the group and left, disappearing into the forest.

"I don't think it's a monster" Zael whispered. I gave him a puzzled look but he didn't notice me staring at him. _He seems like he's a bit of an air head, like my sister. _I stopped my musing when my eyes caught a pair of gold ones. It felt like my heart stopped for a minute and I felt a blush start to rise on my face. Luckily I was saved by one of the passerbys who had fled. He had come to thank them, thinking they were knights but when he found out they were just mercenaries he changed his thankful tone and left. I frowned in disgust. _He should still be thankful even if they are just mercs!_ I wasn't the only one whose mood was apparently soured by the man though. Syrenne immediately started ranting but the dark haired man just shrugged it off and turned his attention to Ashlya and myself. _Gods I hate being the center of attention._

"Before you start any fights, maybe we should thank the two that helped us out Syrenne." You could tell he was the leader by the way he talked. I avoided eye contact to keep the blush from showing on my pale skin and focused on a pebble on the ground. _That's a nice pebble… I really wish they would stop staring… _Luckily Ashlya took the initiative in the conversation, knowing my how intensely shy I can be near new people. She was shocked that I had even talked to Lowell and Mirania, but honestly my curiosity had overcome my shyness in that case.

"It was no problem! We like to help out when we can. I'm Ashlya and this is my sister Mana! Don't mind her hard core staring at that pebble. She's just shy." She greeted them like she had known them her whole life while I was turning tomato red. I took a couple deep breaths to get my color to return back to normal and glared at my sister for the comment. A couple more breaths and I got the courage to speak.

"Are you the rest of Mirania and Lowell's group by chance?" I peeked away from my pebble to look at their surprised faces.

"You know our pervert? He didn't try to touch you did he? Ooohh I swear if he did I'm going to kill him!" Syrenne began to mutter other things about Lowell that made me cringe, and I didn't even have the parts she was talking about.

"No no! We're all staying at the same tavern. We got to talking because we're all mages." I explained quickly while glancing over to Yurick. He had a very disinterested look on his face, almost like he wanted to be anywhere but near the rest of the mercenaries.

"Well in that case we should properly introduce ourselves. I'm Zael; this is Dagran, Syrenne, and Yurick." He pointed to each respectively.

"Well now that that's over let's head to the tavern. I'm totally knackered. I need a bath." I nodded in agreement with Syrenne. I stunk after that fight and Ashlya was covered in dried blood… Again. Even the passerbys were staring at us in repulsion. The only person who didn't seem to notice the stench was Zael, who was looking at everyone with confusion.

"I don't know why everyone is staring at us like that." Did he not have a sense of smell? My question was quickly answered by Syrenne when she told him that he should get his sense of smell checked out. When we got back to the tavern I made a beeline towards our room's bathroom so that I could get the grime off. Ashlya followed after me and we both prepared to clean off.

"Well they seem pretty nice." She grinned happily at the thought of new friends and I couldn't help but smile too. She began to undress, revealing a few scratches and bruises from the fight.

"They're really good at fighting. Especially Dagran, though they were all pretty cool out there." I winced when I took my shirt off and I heard Ashlya gasp. I attempted to look at my back, where the pain was originated, only to find that my whole back was discolored. _Probably from when I got thrown. _I frowned. _I should probably get Mirania to look at it if I can't heal it myself. _I met my sister's concerned violet eyes and shrugged softly, so that I wouldn't aggravate the bruise.

"I'll heal it after I wash this grime and blood off." And with that I grabbed a wash towel and began to scrub with soapy water. Ashlya busied herself with attempted to get the dried blood off and by the time we were rinsing the soap off, our skins looked red from the scouring. She stepped into the bath to relax while I began to work through my hair. _She has longer hair, yet she always manages to get through hers faster. I should really figure out her secret. _I rinsed my hair out and combed through it and started healing the bruise on my back. It was tricky since I couldn't reach parts comfortably but I managed to heal enough of it so that it wouldn't be too painful. Stepping into the bath next to her I sighed and began to think of what the rest of the day would be like. _We still haven't actually visited the city. We should finish up the day doing that. _I turned to Ashlya and told her my thoughts. She nodded in agreement and stated that it would be best, that way we wouldn't get lost as easily; it was a big city after all. After about fifteen minutes of soaking in the warm water we got out and dried off.

"Ahhh, that was nice. Now hopefully we can get through the rest of the day without anything else bad happening!" She quickly got dressed and started pulling her hair into a ponytail while she waited for me to get dressed. We stepped out to find Syrenne already drinking and Lowell and Zael talking about Lowell's womanizing ways. I manage to hear "I only like real women" when Syrenne threw something at him. They were an interesting pair and something told me that they went way back. There was something was going on between them, but I wasn't one to interfere.

"Are you two heading out? Zael and I were going to go explore the city, if you wouldn't mind the company." Ashlya smiled and agreed to his invitation just as Zael walked up.

"In that case we should split up. It's easier to avoid people with less in a group. Zael, you go with Ashlya and I'll go with Mana. And Zael, make sure you pay attention to the paths. We wouldn't want you getting lost. Well let's head out." He handed Zael a map of the city and gently took my hand. As soon as he did my face became a cherry. It wasn't every day that you were escorted by a very handsome man that also had battle prowess. And I had never actually held a guy's hand, thanks to both my father and Ashlya's overprotective nature. As we left I saw her glaring daggers at the hand that was attached to mine, but she didn't have a chance to do anything as Zael grabbed her and went in the opposite direction. He looked as happy as a child at a fair with the prospect of exploring a new city, and I had to grin at the young man's happy character. He was definitely the type that you could trust and I felt excited to learn more about the mercenaries. I looked up at my own companion and my purple eyes met his gold ones. He smiled gently and began to talk, realizing I was usually too shy to start conversations.

"So why did you come to the city? We're here for a job from the Count himself." He had answered one of my many questions without me even having to ask. _Am I that obvious? _Another blush colored by face at the thought.

"We're actually here because we wanted to see our dad, who travels a lot. We came here without permission…" I muttered the last part and I met his gaze once more. An amused smirk appeared on his handsome face and I had to wonder to myself how one person could be so perfect. _He has to have a flaw! It's only natural for him to have one! _But I couldn't find one off the bat and I didn't want stare him down. That would be just plain rude.

"Well who's you're father? We could help you look for him, since the city is so big it'd be easier if everyone was looking for him." And he was a gentleman! He was like the perfect guy! The only thing that would make him better is if he could cook!

"He's name is Asthar. He's the general of the knights" I thought I saw those golden eyes narrow in hate out of my peripheral, but when I turned to look at him he had a gentle smile adorning his face.

"Well he shouldn't be too hard to find then. He's quite famous and I think the knights are marching through the town today for the engagement of the count's niece." I remember Ariela mentioning something like that earlier. "He should be in it. It won't be for a while, so until then let's get to know the city." With one hand holding mine and the other a map we began to look around the city. I was amazed by how lively it was here, and also how many people slipped on fallen fruit. Even Dagran slipped once, much to my amusement. Well it was amusing until I took a slip on a random banana peel. _Karma was a bitch sometimes_ I thought bitterly. _It never lets me have my fun at other's expense._ But my smile stayed on my face as I spent time with Dagran. We went to the market, where we ate different foods, we saw a fortune teller, varies little shops; I had never had so much fun with someone outside of my family!

"So what is the general like?" The question was a little out of the blue but it didn't bother me. Living with my sister had made me pretty immune to randomness.

"He's a very loyal person. I don't think he would be able to betray anyone even if he's life was on the line. He's generally laid back, but he can be very strict when there's a need to be. Once he got really mad at our neighbor's kid and he spanked the boy with a cane until he couldn't sit, though the kid kind of deserved it. He's also a very strong swordsman. He taught Ashlya how to use a sword and taught me how to throw knifes." I realized that I was starting to ramble, but I couldn't help it when it came to my dad and Dagran made me comfortable enough to talk about him. Really all of them made me feel that way, almost like I had another family. The thought brought forth a warm feeling in my chest and I beamed happily.

"Well I think the knights are about to head though the town so let's find your sister and Zael." I followed him as he headed towards the south gate and soon we ran into both of them. _Does he instinctively know where he is? That's kind of terrifying._ I looked at both of them and noticed that they looked a little ragged, like they had been running around all day. _I wonder what their day was like. Probably hectic with the way she attracts trouble _I believed cheerfully.

"The knights are about to head to the castle. Do you want to go now or catch up?" He asked the two of them, smirk still on his face. They both decided to go with us and my sister took my side and began to glare at Dagran again. _I guess she's still upset about him holding my hand. _I laughed at the thought and Ashlya kept up her glare. We walked together and Ashlya told me about how they had gone to the arena and how Syrenne had made it sound like a brothel until we reached the street the knight were going to be walking down and just in time. The knights began to walk down the street and I saw our father, in all of his knightly glory. Behind him was his pupil, Sir Therius, another man that held my respect. I turned to my sister to see her face a little pink and scrunched up. She had always had a thing for him ever since our father brought him home one day to announce him as his pupil, but the knight had been terrified of her excitably nature and refused, or couldn't figure out how, to talk to her unless it was absolutely necessary. It was actually pretty funny to watch. She would ask him something and he would say something back that was so formal sounding that even our mom was laughing. Even after our father brought him by several times he never figured out how to handle her. And apparently he had just caught her eyes because his face lost all color almost immediately. I laughed lightly and brought my gaze to look at our father. I instantly wished I hadn't. He was looking straight at us with a look of anger, disappointment, and frustration. In other words he was pissed off. I darted my eyes away, tugging on my cyan hair out of nervousness and stole a glance at Zael and Dagran. Zael and a look of admiration on his face but Dagran had a look that was terrifying. His eyes were cold and full of hatred, but when he saw my glance they changed back to normal. _Maybe I just imagined it? _I decided to shrug off what I thought I saw and continued watching the company of knights now that my father had passed through and let my thoughts wonder until the all of them were in the castle. I was concerned about how angry our father was and when I looked back my sister I knew that she was having the same thoughts. We walked back to the tavern and listened to Zael talk about his dream to become a knight. After telling them about the festival that was to be happening tonight Lowell began to tease Syrenne, which ultimately lead to him being pushed off the ledge of the upstairs area.

"Who needs fireworks when you've got a pint of the good stuff? Oh. My glass looks kind of empty." I was seriously concerned about her ability to drink that much. However a problem soon showed itself when Syrenne ordered her umpteenth drink and the bar was out… Of everything.

"Well Zael, have you ever wanted to be a delivery boy?" He looked surprised at first but he took it into stride and after Ariela apologized for making him go to get it he left, but not before Syrenne told him that if she didn't get a drink in her soon she might cry.

"Well while we're waiting for him to return, do you want to watch the fireworks from the bridge?" I looked at my sister, knowing her weakness for fireworks. She smiled at the suggestion and we went out of the tavern. Suddenly Ashlya stopped and held her hand up.

"Do you hear that?" I could faintly pick up the sound of talking and shouting. It sounded like it was coming from in between the tavern and the building next to it. There was a narrow alley between the two buildings that looked like it was accessible from the back. Ashlya grabbed my hand and dragged me to the ally. She began to shimmy into it to hear the conversation, dragging me with her.

"Eaves dropping isn't a good thing to do Ashlya!" She promptly ignored me.

"Dagran, what are you covering up?"

"What business is it to yours?"

"C'mon we're all blokes here! Nothing to be ashamed of. "

"Hey, stop that!" There was some splashing and I understood where we were.

"Not bad… Doesn't hold a candle to mine of course though."

"Ridiculous. As if this is some real victory to be proud of."

"You're being awfully quiet, Yurick." More splashing. I quickly realized the topic of the chat and started to flush furiously. Even Ashlya was blushing at this point.

"What?" "No way!"

"What?"

"Oh nothing…"

"Well anyways, I'm getting out now." There was the sound of Yurick leaving the bath and then slight muttering from Dagran.

"It's as big as a muruk!"

"Yep… He's got a muruk…" I felt myself get lightheaded and my vision got blurry. Next thing I knew my sister and I were out of the ally and she was fanning me while I was propped up against a wall.

"You ok there? You understandably fainted." She was still flushed and the memory of their talk almost caused me to faint again.

"Oh god… I'm never going to be able to look at them again! Mirania was going to ask Yurick if he could be my magic teacher too! I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye!" I started to hyperventilate at the thought of him teaching me after I had heard that.

"Well at least you can still look at Zael the same?" It was her feeble attempt to lighten the mood.

"We're never ease dropping again." I'm sure if she had known what they were going to be talking about she wouldn't have done it in the first place but I had to make her promise not to do it again. I didn't want a repeat of this moment to happen again. She pinky- promised that she wouldn't drag me into anything like that again and when I felt strong enough to move we went to watch the fireworks from Arganan Bridge.

"So… Did you see the look on dad's face when he saw us?" It was just a matter of time before we had this conversation. He was probably already in the process of finding out where we were staying.

"Yup. I bet a hundred gold that he finds us within two days. I really don't want to think about the punishment. He looked really angry. Though the mood was lightened by how much Therius' face blanched when he saw you." She started to pout at that comment and stated that she didn't know why he hated her so much.

"Probably because you terrify him with you loud nature." I stuck my tongue at her while saying that, earning another pout from her.

"I can't help it! Did you know that he called me uncouth under his breath once?! Gah! It's like he thinks he's better than me and it pisses me off!" _I wonder what would happen if they actually spent time with each other for more than five minutes? I bet that they would either murder each other or gain each other's respect. _I suddenly had a plan. It would take convincing our dad but if I could set up Therius to be her sparring partner, she could show him that she was someone he should have respect for as a warrior.

"We should probably head back." The fireworks were coming to an end. When we came back Zael was back from his errand but instead of booze… He had a girl. I lifted an eyebrow and Syrenne was eyeing the girl head to toe.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." After more teasing from Lowell and Syrenne, Zael was turning a shade red and stuttering that it wasn't what it seemed and Ashlya was laughing her head off. After a lengthy explanation of what had happened, a.k.a. Zael proving his innocence, Syrenne practically dragged the poor girl, who said her name was Lisa, to the bathing area in her room, causing Zael once more to start stuttering. _The poor boy seems like he fell in love_. Unfortunately Lowell's gave him some pretty lousy advice and Zael went to listen to them bathe. _This could not end while._ After about two minutes Syrenne's voice could be heard yelling and a loud smack sound emitted from the room.

"That did not sound pleasant." Ashlya whispered. I bobbed my head in agreement. Moments later Zael came out with a red hand print garnishing his face. I waited for Lowell to say a smart remark but when I glanced over, he and Mirania were talking, grime looks on their faces. Zael picked up on their looks as soon as he came downstairs and he headed towards them. Ashlya and I got up and gathered around the two mages to find out what had caused such drastic changes in there auras.

Lowell and Mirania went on to explain about a boy, Warren, who was the adopted son of the innkeeper. He had a rare illness that needed a very certain medicine, but the two hadn't been able to find any until recently. After hearing the story Zael rushed up stairs to talk to Warren while my sister and I stayed with the two mages. They told us where they think the medicine was in a warehouse that the bandits and asked if we could help. We preceded upstairs to tell Zael and plan out the heist to get the drug. We headed out and when we got there Zael climbed up to an open window to sneak in first. His job was to take out the guard and signal to us that it was clear and he did it so quietly that he could have been mistaken for an assassin.

"Right, looks like everything is going smoothly." Dagran was the first to step into the warehouse and the forest mage made the suggestion that we split up and look for the medicine. We opened every chest we could find but all that was contained inside of them were random weapons, assorted dyes, and some armor.

"Hmm, that's not it"

"They've really filled this place up haven't they?" Lowell stated in awe.

"I hate to think of all the things they did to get all of this." I had to agree with Mirania in that statement.

"You can say that again" The leader of the group kept looking around while making that comment. _This could take forever with the amount that they had stocked up._

We were about to give up when Lowell leaned against the wall, sighing at the misfortune of not finding the treatment. The wall shook and moved to reveal an entrance to a hidden room.

"Things are getting interesting now" We started to head towards the room when Dagran stopped Zael to point out a flag with an insignia on it. As it turned out the leader of the bandits, whose name was Zoran, was someone Dagran and Zael knew, and now Dagran looked like he was going to explode. Mirania brought them back to their sense when she reminded them that the medicine comes first. We went through the entrance and heard bandits laughing and joking about some barmaid that the main man was "romancing". We quickly took up positions with three of us at the front door and three at the back as they started to talk about they're latest plan. They were planning on releasing monsters into the city and using the confusion to take things! My rage started to build and Dagran started to count. One. Two. Three! Ashlya, Zael, and Dagran charged in while Lowell, Mirania and I charged our magic. Zael used his strange power to lure the enemies and I found myself charging faster than usually.

"That stupid haircut. Well if it isn't pretty boy Dagran" The boss, Zoran taunted. I casted a lighting attack at one of the bandits, stunning him long enough for my sister to slice his neck open. He fell onto the floor as his life pumped out of his veins. I started to charge again but I was knocked across the room by one of the foes. I barely had enough time to block a deadly swing with one of my knifes and I kicked him to get him away, but he was a lot heavier than I could bear. However he was so busy concentrating on me that he did not see Dagran run up behind him. The man took his blade and cut the bandits arms off, covering me in blood.

"Are you ok?" He helped me up and I thanked him, telling him I was fine. He returned to the quarrel and soon the only one left was Zoran.

"Now be a good boy and hand over the medicine." The leader of the bandits tried to deflect the question but Dagran threated him and he gave up the location.

"Fine, it's over there in the cabinet. But you're not getting it!" He ran and slammed his foot onto the ground, and a trap doors opened underneath us. We fell into a cistern and I looked around to find that it was just Zael, Mirania, and me.

"Mirania, Mana, are you ok?"

"I'm fine Zael. How about yourself?" _Mirania always had a strange pattern of speaking_ I thought idly to myself.

"I'm good. You're not injured are you?"

"I'm fine. Where are the others? Dagran? Lowell? Ashlya?" Zael began to shout out to see if the others could hear him when suddenly bubbles started to appear in the water. Reptids began to pop out of the water and I inwardly groaned. The slimy things had always freaked me out. Zael readied his sword and started using his power and Mirania threw down a heal circle just as the reptids jumped out of the water. My spell was going twice as fast with his ability and I casted lightning bolts at some of them that were trying to surround Zael. Their bodies twitched and started to fry, dead before they hit the ground. Zael caught one with his sword, throwing it up then swinging down, slicing it in half. Luckily there weren't that many of them and soon the battle was over. We began to search for a way out but the situation looked dire, judging by the amount of skeletons lying around. I almost expected them to jump up and attack us.

"Is that… A drainage channel? Maybe it connects to somewhere else." It was a fine observation from Zael and I wondered if we would meet the others in there. We climbed out into the channel and Mirania started asking the usually happy swordsman about Zoran. As it turns out he used to be a mercenary and fought alongside Dagran and Zael. We kept running when suddenly the gate behind us fell down, making us trapped.

"A dead end!" Just as Zael said that the wall busted open revealing more reptids.

"Let's deal with these then go through that wall." Mirania and I nodded at his plan and we started to charge. _The healer should be taken out quickly. _Zael was fighting off some of the sword wielding reptids so I decided it was up to me. I finished my spell and casted it, focusing all of it at their mage. It struck them hard and they shrieked in pain. Its eyes started to bleed as the intensity of the shock caused the reptid's heart to stop. During all of this Zael explained how Zoran had sold them out and tried to kill them and how before then he and Dagran had been very close. Now the bandit chief did all kinds of things; stealing, smuggling, slavery, the works. My dislike for the man grew every time I heard something about him. We went through the hole that the reptids had made and continued through the waterway were we soon miraculously met up with the rest of the group. They were hiding behind a wall and I soon realized why. The biggest creature I had ever seen was blocking the path forward. I looked over at my sister to see that my panicked expression was being mirrored on her face, but the rest of the group was completely unfazed. _They have the confidence to take down the world_. I was amazed by them whenever I got to see them fight. It was like the battleground was their home. Dagran lured the beast over to us so that Zael could use his new technique, slash. When it got close enough Zael leaped out of his spot behind the wall and used the momentum to cut the monstrous reptid in half. We headed through another broken section of wall and climbed up a short ladder to come across a sight that I never wanted to see again. Drugged reptids in cells lined the walls of the room.

"Is he really going to let these loose in the city?" Mirania asked softly. Dagran answered with ire in his voice that that was Zoran's way of doing things. He would cause chaos and use it to his advantage. Some of the reptids looked sick, shaking and coughing. One wasn't even responding to us. _We definitely have to stop him. _I looked at everyone's faces and saw the determination that was set on them. There was no way we would let him do this. We opened the door into another room to find more reptids. These however were fully conscious of their actions and therefor had to be taken down before they took us down. Zael began to use his ability, gathering their attention, while Ashlya and Dagran snuck behind them, successfully surrounding them. I focused on the mages they had in the middle while Mirania casted a heal circle. As I watched the battle I suddenly realized that some of them weren't taking damage. Specifically the ones hit by Lowell's ice magic. _It's almost like they're getting healed from it… Wait! Reptids are Ice element!_

"Lowell! Stop using your ice magic! It's just helping them!" I shouted out, hoping he'd hear me. And somehow he did. He pulled out a sword and joined the other sword users, slicing his way through reptid flesh. _I didn't know he was an able swordsman too. I wonder why he decided to learn magic if he can use a blade that well. _I pulled myself away from my thoughts and focused on the battle at hand. There were just a few left, but they were causing a lot of problems with their poison. I shot another lightning spell out, frying one of the viper reptids just as Lowell sliced the last reptid's stomach out.

"Well that's that. I wonder how many more of these damn things we have to fight." Ashlya muttered, mostly to herself, but everyone chuckled at her grumbling. We went through the next door to find more captive reptids. One was even dancing quite… Seductively. And then I turned to see the rest of the room and my jaw dropped. I had thought that the monster before was huge but this one was at least three times its size and was carrying a giant hammer like weapon. _No wonder everyone is being quiet. I didn't even notice it… _I scolded myself for being so careless. I looked at the ogre like creature and saw why it wasn't moving around: It was chained to a rather flimsy looking pillar like it was some kind of dog. Zael bravely approached the thing while Dagran yelled at him to be carefully. The ogre caught sight of him and swung its hammer into Zael, flinging him back into the wall.

"We can't take it head on like that! We have to think of something." It was obvious that Dagran was concerned about Zael by the way that he had reprimanded him about his action but Zael got back on his feet quickly, blood falling out of a gash in the back of his head, and jumped into Mirania's heal circle. He started to look around until he pointed at the weak looking pillar.

"Lowell, take it down with some magic" Lowell started to charge his ice attack to follow out the order while asking if he got extra pay for demolition and Dagran complimented Zael on his observation, stating that it was holding that portion of the ceiling up. I began to cast spells on reptids that were seemingly appearing out of nowhere and Lowell threw the spell just as even more reptids appeared. The ceiling fell down on top of them, crushing the life out of them and Ashlya cleared out any reptids that somehow missed the ceiling that had killed their comrades.

"Zael, are you alright?" Mirania's motherly nature always made me smile, no matter where we were or the situation.

"Zael's thick head can take anything." The ice mage joked happily.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Zael responded to the jest. I loved how they treated each other like a family. I smiled at their conversations and looked at my sister. _I should tell her that I'm grateful to have someone like her more often. _I decided that before we headed to bed I would tell her, no matter what. We headed through the next door after Dagran told us to move it before more came. In the next room we found one more cell with a reptid, rubble, and one more door. _I wonder how they caught this many reptids._ It was a question that I doubt I would ever know the answer to. When we opened the door Zoran and his thugs were waiting for us.

"Hah! Still alive pretty boy?" Zoran's taunt for him seemed to actually work against Dagran. _I guess guys don't like being called pretty._

"A coward like you won't beat me. Why not save some time and surrender now?" I had never seen him that angry. _I guess everyone has that side to them. Except maybe Zael. I can't imagine him angry._

"A coward? I prefer to call it being smart! And you've gotta be smart to get anywhere in this life. A sword-waving idiot like you wouldn't understand. You'll be nothing but a merc, crawling in the dirt for the rest of your stinkin' life!"

"You'd best watch your tongue before you lose it!" Dagran was losing his cool and it seemed Zoran knew it. The chief smirked and told him there was no need to get so worked up. The sound of rumbling came from the elevator shaft as Zoran told us that he had something for us to unwind with. And I had a bad feeling about it. _There is nothing from him that I could possibly want other than that medicine. _I prayed that it no one would get hurt from whatever monster the man had managed to obtain and my heart stopped when I saw it. I had only read in books about them, never thinking that I would see one in reality, but recently my life had decided that anything that could be potentially dangerous I would run into. I braced myself for the battle as a terracor emerged from the chute. `

"It looks like we can use those landings. Zael get up there!" Dagran started to shout out orders for us to follow. Zael ran up the stairs to the next landing and Dagran told him that he should be able to reach it with a sword from up there. Bandits flanked the monster and I decided to take those out first before taking on the terracor, since they had arrows and that could disrupt a spell.

"Zoran… How the hell did he keep this thing hidden away?" muttered the dark haired swordsman. When the terracor got close enough to Zael he slashed at it, causing it to spin out of control until it got stuck in the opening to the elevator

"Haha he's stuck in the door!" The sword users used this opportunity to cut at its exposed bottom while Lowell and I stuck it with magic. It quickly became unstuck and we took cover from its spinning. Zael ran back up to the landing to prepare for another slash attack.

"This thing's covered in armor! Gah, that's tougher than I thought!" Dagran's sword bounced off the monster's thick skin and I saw Mirania look at it thoughtfully.

"That armor… Doesn't it remind you of anything?"

"What do you mean?" Lowell looked at her with a confused look on his face.

"It looks kind of like a big fluffy muffin! Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so hungry I can't think straight!" _How could she be thinking about food right now?! _I looked at her bewildered then looked at Dagran with the same expression on my face when he promised her that he'd buy her all the muffins she wanted afterwards if she just concentrated. Ashlya was laughing at the group and I just shook my head and went with it. _I guess it's good to have comrades like these. I wouldn't mind becoming a mercenary if it meant being with this group. _I smiled at the thought. Our mom would definitely be pissed, but I needed to spread my wings somehow. And the more time I spent with them the more appealing the thought was. I watched as the monster went spinning again after another hit from Zael's slash attack and I threw everything I had at its weak point with everyone.

"Not a fast learner are you? Get it!" The shout came from Dagran as everyone ganged up on it. It was bleeding heavily now and grunting in pain. It dislodged itself for a second time only to be sent reeling again by Zael. _I think this time should do it._ Its intestines were starting to come out of it from one wicked laceration that went from the tip of its tail down and under to the beginning of its stomach. Ashlya was targeting this opening with vengeance and Dagran caught on to her plan to disembowel the creature. Its large intestine hit the floor, dragging its small intestine with it and it roared viciously. Zael took the moment to stab upwards, hoping to hit the heart. It fell over, its cardiac muscle sliced open, half of it beating in an attempt to make more blood as its life's essence flowed down its wounds. It made another roar, this one pathetic and feeble sounding, and then silence.

"Now, after Zoran!" We climbed up the ladder to find the despicable man. When we found him he started to beg for his life, stating that he would give them money. Dagran looked like he was going to kill the man, but Mirania beat him to the leader of the bandits. She hit him hard on the head with a skillet and he fell over, unconscious.

"Mirania just saved your life. You won't be so lucky next time" Dagran looked at his crumpled form and walked around him while we searched for the medicine.

"Let's see… Ha, got it!" Lowell held up a vase that looked like it had a white flower in it. We all sighed in relief and headed back to the tavern where Ariela and Warren were waiting. Mirania gave the sickly boy the medicine and told him that if he drank it every day he would be better in no time. The effect was almost instant. He's color started to return to his face and after a few minutes he was sitting up in his bed.

"I'm gonna get better, and then when I grow up, I'm gonna be a strong mercenary just like Zael!" The boys dream made my heart warm and I was glad that I was able to help cure the sweet boy. We all headed downstairs to find Syrenne and Lisa waiting for Zael.

"Oh, Zael! How'd it go?"

"We pulled it off without a hitch!"

"Good to hear! Congrats! Oh, that reminds me. Lisa keeps asking about you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She was wondering if you always take a girl to a bar and ply her with drinks when you're trying to get her in the sack." Syrenne's question made Zael turn bright red.

"No! This is a special case! She was being chased by guards; where else could I have taken her?

"Oh really? So this is a 'special case' then, is it?"

"What?! No! That's not what I meant!"

"You've got a lot to learn." I chuckled at her teasing and saw Mirania talking to Yurick. She looked in my direction and beckoned me over. I walked over to the duo of mages when suddenly the banter that I had overheard between the men came to the front of my mind. I tried to push away the thought and the blush but no matter what I did Dagran's voice came back in my thoughts. As big as a muruk…. I avoided his questioning eye and focused on a cut on my hand.

"You know, you'll have to make eye contact with me eventually. Mirania just asked me to be your teacher." My stare intensify on the my cut and my flush deepened. _This is going to be the worst training I've ever gotten… Why won't the memory go away!?_ I got up enough nerve to make eye contact and attempted to maintain some kind of dignity.

"Thank you for agreeing to teach me some control. I don't have much practice." I couldn't help but wonder why he had an eye patch. He started asking me about what all I knew and how I learnt. As we talked the memory buried itself again and soon I was able to get my face cooled back down.

"Well I'm heading to bed. You should probably rest up too. We start training tomorrow morning." He seemed rather annoyed that he had to teach me. It made me wonder what Mirania did to convince to teach me in the first place. I turned to rejoin the original conversation I was in only to find Zael and Lisa gone. I turned to look at my sister, who had gotten drunk during my time talking to Yurick, and Syrenne, who was probably why she was so drunk.

"This girl knows how to drink! I'm glad I finally found a drinking partner!" Syrenne was grinning ear to ear and I watch as Ashlya took another shot. _I let her be for now. _

"Where'd Zael and Lisa go?" I directed my question to Dagran, who hadn't been drinking.

"Lisa asked him to take her to Stargazers Tower. She practically begged him actually."

"Ah, I see. Well I'm going to head to bed. Good night Dagran." I smiled at the dark haired man before heading back to the room. I started to wash the blood and grime from today off and got dressed in my sleep cloths. Ashlya stumbled in as soon as I got into the bed and went to wash off, the smell of alcohol strong on her. She came back after a few minutes and collapsed into her bed.

"Hey Mana?" I almost didn't catch her whisper.

"Yeah?"

"I love you little sis." Even though she was drunk, I knew she was sincere. I smiled at one of her few sweet moments, since she usually tried to keep up a tough act.

"I love you too Ashlya. So don't go hurting yourself ok?" I heard her chuckle that she should be saying the same thing and then grow silent as she fell asleep. When I heard her soft snoring I allowed myself to fall into the same deep sleep she was in.


	4. Chapter 4: What A Twist!

AAhahahahhaha….. Sorry for the late update… I've been quite busy this week but I finally got down with this chapter! Thanks again Naarastiikeri and MusicalTides for the reviews. Hopefully I have pushed a little further away from the main story a bit and have made Ashlya and Mana more involved with, well, everything (It's hard for me to not follow canon to be honest since I don't want AU _ lol). And thank you xSlytherinxPrincessxVampirax for following :3

So this chapter is divided between the sister's POVs so enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own it. Every time I remember I don't I get super depressed.

Chapter Four: What A Twist!

"Concentrate!" I felt a sharp whap on my head as my "teacher" hit me on the dome with a paper fan. Now usually I was pretty good at focusing on task but this training had been ridiculous. The day had started off with Yurick knocking on our door before the sun had even risen and telling me to get ready. I rushed to get dressed and he took me to Stargazer's Tower to start our training, and so far that had consisted of him telling me to mediate until I found the core of my power, which had manifested itself as a ball of electricity. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that every time I almost grabbed hold of it he would either throw something at me or shout something out, destroying my attention.

"It'd be easier to do if you'd stop throwing stuff at me!" I really did not know where he was pulling this shit out of. There were boots, daggers, and even some books scattering the area around me.

"This training isn't supposed to be easy. As you should know already, the enemy isn't going to wait for you in silence. What you've been doing on the battlefield is amateur at best. Now, do it again." He's words stung, but I knew they were true. I fell silent, closing my eyes, and started to mediate again, absorbed in my breathing and heartbeat and soon the sparking orb came into my mind's eye again. I reached out to it and felt a small shock run through my being.

"Good. Now you need to control it. Bend it into the shape you want it to be." I tried to stretch it out into the shape of something I could throw, like a spear or a knife, and soon it was forced out of its original sphere form. My body was tingling and my hairs were standing straight up. It was like all my nerves were on overdrive.

"Are you ok?" I felt him touch my shoulder and heard him yelp in surprise as a small electric shock flowed from my body to his. A soft moan escaped my throat as the electrical discharge left my body throbbing pleasantly. My eyes flashed open to find the sight of Yurick looking thoroughly pissed.

"Don't let your own power control you!" Another whack on the head followed. _Well maybe if you would actually tell me these things before it happens… _The sound of chuckling brought me back from my grumbling and I turned to see Dagran against the wall. _Does he always know where everyone is? It's freaky! _

"Now, you shouldn't be so rough. If I remember correctly you once told us a story about how when you were first learning you almost burnt down a house." I tried to hold in my laughter but some chortles came out, causing Yurick to glare hard enough at me that I thought I would catch flame._ Probably shouldn't antagonize my teacher. _I shut up and decided to ask Dagran that story later.

"And that was the last time I drank with Syrenne. Ever. " I barely caught Yurick muttering. _Yeah, that would make someone spill some embarrassing stories…_

"So why are you here Dagran?" I stood up and approached the man, grinning happily. I glanced over to Yurick to see him gathering everything. _I guess training is done for today. Thank god, I'm already exhausted and it's not even noon yet. _

"I mostly came to tell Yurick that we're heading to the castle in an hour. Also, Mana, your sister and your belongings have been retrieved by a knight sent from your father and he told me to pass a message to you. Your father says that if you don't meet with him by tonight, he's packing both you and your sister back home." My smile dropped immediately. _Shit! He's totally pissed! I doubt I'd actually be able to hide… I wonder who they got to retrieve Ashlya…_

"I'm sure you're wondering what poor soul they got to retrieve your sister." _How the HELL does he do that?! _"It was the knight that is declared as your father's pupil. I think he's name is Therius." _Dammit. This day could not get worse! I better find them before Ashlya destroys the city in an attempt to kill him off…_

"O.K. I'm going to go now!" I rushed out, barely hearing Yurick ask the leader what my hurry was. I had been running through town, bumping into people and signs, for about ten minutes when I heard very, very angry shouting. _Found them. _I prepared myself to stop whatever fight was about to go down. I ran into the Central Plaza to find Ashlya red in the face from yelling at the knight with her heels digging into the ground, while he was dragging her by her arm, looking completely calm.

"God I hate you! You freaking arsehole! You can let go you know? AAGGHH! WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME YOU?! I DON'T WANT TO GO!LET GO BEFORE I START PULLING ON THAT GORGEOUS HAIR!" She obviously didn't been to say the gorgeous part, because as soon as she did she turned even more red and her mouth snapped shut. _She is an expert at causing a scene though_. I maneuvered through the gathering crowded and placed a hand over Ashlya's mouth just as she was about to start up again.

"Ashlya, if we don't see dad now it's only going to get worse." I pulled my hand back when she licked it and I glared at her while she stuck her tongue out, but she was following quietly now. I saw Therius relax greatly at her compliance, releasing his grip around her wrist and we proceeded to the castle. The fall of our feet created a loud sound as we walked through large great hall. The only people we saw on our way through were the maids preparing for the party, a few of the castle's mages and knight standing guard and random nobles waiting with anticipation. Therius lead us into the courtyard and headed to the military wing, and with every step my anxiety increased. _I think I'm on the verge of hyperventilating_. I took a deep breath and felt my mouth start going dry. Ashlya was no better. She wiped sweat off of her forehead and glanced around, looking for an escape route. I rolled my eyes and told her again that the longer he has to wait, the angrier he would be. We followed the whited haired knight into the elevator, leading us to one exceptionally wrathful Asthar. His eyes narrowed as we entered the room and his rage was almost malleable.

"So, my dear daughters, may I ask… WHY YOU ARE HERE?" I flinched as his voiced raised and Ashlya lowered her head submissively.

"You know full well that you weren't supposed to be here so what was the cause for you so blatantly defying me? You know you could have easily gotten hurt." His voice became softer as he soft to us, obviously more concerned than angry now.

"It didn't feel right this time." Ashlya's whispered faintly, but our father caught it. He looked at us questioningly before enveloping us into a tight hug. He looked at us, his smile gradually returning.

"Now, there's no reason to worry about me, I'll be fine. And don't think you're getting out of punishment for this! Both of you are going to assist with this party. Mana, you're going to serve the guest. Ashlya, you are going to stand guard. You'll be staying in the castle's guest rooms until it is time for us to depart back home." We both groaned at the same time at the punishment. _Of course he would give us jobs that would make us the most uncomfortable! He knows I hate talking to new people! And Ashlya can't go more than ten minutes without talking to someone! This is going to be horrible! And making us stay at the castle? It's like being grounded all over again! _My face started to heat up at the thought of talking to that many people and my sister's mouth hung open wide enough that a fly might land in it. Looking back at our sire I saw him with a huge smile. _He was obviously thinking about this for a while. I never knew he could be this sadistic. _My suspicion about his plan was solidified when he pulled out a maid's outfit and two castle passes. Passing a glance over at my sister I saw her boring holes into Therius' hair, almost like she was hoping it would catch fire. _It's almost like she's jealous of him… Well, while I'm here I might as well try to find out why she acts so volatile towards him. _I took the maid uniform from my father and groaned again. He ushered us out, telling us to get ready and shut the door behind us. I started to walk towards the elevator to leave when Ashlya grabbed me. She pressed her ear to the door and hushed me.

"Ashlya, you promised not to pull me into eaves dropping again!" She hushed me again and I sighed when she asked if I was curious about why dad actually let us stay. I knew that if I agreed it would only feed into her bad habit, but I couldn't deny my own interest. I put my ear against the door and faintly made out our dad talking to his pupil.

"General, I understood you were going to have me guide them back home. May I inquire why you have decided to let them stay in the castle?"

"Therius, it is not very often that my daughters and I have a feeling of dread. Something is wrong with this land and the deeper I dig into the reasoning the harder it is to ignore the feeling in my gut." He sighed and continued on. "If something happens to me promise you'll take care of those two Therius. I know Ashlya can be a hand full, but please promise me you will try. Also don't talk to me so formally when it's just the two of us." _So dad has the same feeling about him being here as we do. _I frowned.

"So that's why… C'mon, let's go before they come out." The elevator ride back down was painfully quiet as both of us thought about what our father had said. Something about this place just wasn't right. Everything looked beautiful, but it was like it was hiding a dark secret.

"Do you think it was a good idea to come here?" She looked at me when I asked my question and pulled me into a hug.

"Of course! We have to be here for our dad no matter what! I'm sure he's actually happy that we're here and only punished us out of fear of what momma would do if he didn't!" She smiled, but it looked almost forced. The lift came to a halt and we stepped out.

"Ugh… I think we're on the wrong floor…" The room was filled with what looked like the coffins of knights that had died protecting this land.

"Let's get out of here. It's starting to creep me out." She heard my soft muttering and we headed back to the elevator and I insured that we went to the right floor this time. As we stepped out into the courtyard I heard a very familiar voice.

"I'm saying, I can't stand your holier-than thou- attitude." _Oh god, why? Can't everyone get along? _Zael approached the infuriated woman just as Syrenne charged at the long haired knight. But before either could get to the scuffle a voice boomed an order at Therius.

"Stay your blade." Therius hesitated for a moment, but quickly lowered his sword as our father approached the two.

"You want some as well? You old git."

"I wonder what she would say if she knew that's our dad." I chuckled at Ashlya's comment and sighed in relief.

"Well at least there won't be a fight now." I watched as our father tactfully handled the situation and apologized for Therius' behavior. _Adding 'Lady' was a good move. _Syrenne had blushed slightly at the respectful title and the fact that he pointed out the spectacle that was being caused by the two and agreed to keep her weapon sheathed, yet she managed to keep up her prideful appearance by stating that he had killed the mood anyways, and she left while saying she had better things to do. As they walked away Ashlya and I caught up to Sir Therius and our father to apologize for our alcoholic friend's conduct.

"So daddy, I see you meet one of our friends…?" If only Ashlya was as tactful as our father…

"We wanted to apologize for Syrenne's behavior. She's actually a very nice person once you get to know her. She's just a little rough around the edges." He patted both of us on the heads, accepting the apology.

"Do not worry. I'm not mad, I'm actually quite amused. It's not every day that someone calls me an old git! I think the last person was actually your mother when I forgot our anniversary!" _If you compare how he is as a General and how he is at home the differences are outstanding! _He suddenly turned to Therius, looking a little more than annoyed.

"Sir Therius, what were you thinking?" _Uh-oh, someone's in trouble. Well at least it's not us. I've had enough scolding for a year. _I shrink away as our father continued to tell Therius that a knight cannot behave like that and that it was shameful, and how the public expected them to act with decorum at all times. _He does kind of have a point. Plus he has no reason to be so disrespectful towards them in the first place. They lay their lives on the line just like knights do. Though Syrenne could've also acted a little better… _After being scolded for a while Therius got a chance to speak and he apologized gracefully. I heard Ashlya mutter something about how she hated that everything he did was so perfect looking. _There's only one reason that I can think of that causes her to hate him so much. She has to be jealous. I can understand though. He's practically the competition to dad's attention when it comes to training. Ooohh if I'm right I'm not going to let her live it down. _Blackmailing got stuff done, especially when that person was prideful.

"Raise your head, Therius. No need to look so depressed." I smacked Ashlya's hand that was reaching out to Therius' braid in attempt to yank it. Dad gave us one of those 'stop acting up or you'll get a worse punishment' looks and turned his attention back to Therius, who had apologized again. They started talking about the barracks and knights and we took it as our sign to leave and find our mercenary friends.

"Agh, that bloke was blinkered!" Syrenne was the first person we found since she was actually still in the courtyard. I laughed at her description of Therius.

"You are aware that you made fun of our dad right?" We were laughing as Ashlya broke the news to Syrenne that that "old git" was the person we've been looking for. Her face blanched slightly but quickly regained its color when she realized that there were no hard feelings. We went into the door that led to the Great Hall and found Lowell and Zael speaking about the ruckus.

"Syrenne has flashed her fangs, eh? She excels at making trouble."

"She called our dad an old git!" Lowell shook his head and sighed as we began to giggle again.

"Don't worry, he didn't take offense!" I managed to say through my giggles.

"Well that's good. Now, what is this?" I felt Lowell grab something out of my hands and unfolded the maid's uniform. _I forgot I had that. _With just two playful remarks from him and I was as red as a tomato. I snatched back the garb and explained what had happened with our father.

"Well it's all good. It just means that the lovely Ashlya can spend time with me. I think Dagran is all done with the preparations. He should still be on the second floor, near the top stairs. " He directed the last part at Zael, who had been quietly watching, grinned and looped his arm through Ashlya's then took off down stairs, practically dragging her.

"Well, I guess I should probably prepare too." I looked at Zael, held up the maid outfit and huffed.

"Good luck with that. And remember that you actually won't have to talk to a lot of people. Most of them will probably just tell you what they want to drink."

"Zael, I could barely look you in the eye when we first met and you didn't even really say anything! This is the worse punishment ever!" I lamented, mostly to myself to be honest, and said my goodbyes to Zael. I asked around until I found the guest rooms and quickly located what could only be mine and Ashlya's room. Our stuff was neatly stacked in a corner and the room made it seem like we had next to nothing. I started to miss the cozy tavern room immediately, but shook it off and started to change. _I really hope that it's as Zael says and I don't have to talk to people… _I headed back to the great hall and was quickly pulled into the mayhem of preparing by the main maid.

"General Asthar has told me about the situation, including your punishment. He told me to put you in a job with the most interaction with guest, so you'll be going around and asking the guest if they need anything. Understand?" I felt like crying when she assigned that to me, but I sucked it up. I went through the mediation exercise that Yurick had me go through all morning and calmed down. The maid handed me a tray to carry any drinks or food that was to be delivered to a guest and walked away, leaving me alone. I almost jumped out of my skin when a hand touched my shoulder.

"Don't look so nervous. Just take the nobles request and smile." Dagran appeared almost out of nowhere and after giving me his advice he sauntered off towards Zael. I smiled, watching his retreating figure. As the guest trickled in I kept Dagran's words to heart and smiled at the incoming nobles, doing my best to keep the color from rising.

"Well, well, what have we got here?" I felt a sharp tug on my hair and I whipped around to find a tall, blond haired man condescendingly smirking at me.

"Colon. Why are you here?"

"I could be asking you the same question, my dear soon to be sister-in-law. Why are you in that garb? We couldn't have people thinking that I'm related to some lowly maid. And where's my soon to be fiancée? She must be disciplined for running off without my permission." _I sense a fight is about to happen… _The narcissistic man quickly spotted her across the room and as soon as they made eye contact Ashlya tensed up, surprise came across her face, quickly followed by anger. With every step he took in her direction she tense up more, and looked like she was about to kill him by the time he got within arm's reach of her. I looked around; trying to find Dagran in hopes he could stop the fight that was going to bound to happen without intervention, but I was too late. A hard smack was heard as Colon's hand went across my sister's face. Her jaw went rigid as he told her that if she went off without his permission again he would give her worse chastisement. I swiftly walked over to the duo, picking up on the tell-tell signs of her about to lose her calm. She was starting to bite her tongue and clinch her fist, an eyebrow shot up and her eyes narrowed but she took a deep breath and looked him in the eye.

"Colon, you are not by lover. You are not my father. You are not my brother. Therefor you have no say in where I go and what I do. So I would suggest you leave me be before I change my mind about cutting off your hand for assaulting me like that. I won't tell you again." Her eyes were looking at him coolly and his mouth hung open at her unconcealed threat. He started to say something else, but Dagran was able to interfere before any more damage was done.

"Lord Colon, I believe it may be best if you excuse Miss Ashlya and allow her departure. We do not wish any harm to come to any of the Count's honored guest. Perhaps you would like to visit the castle's extensive library?"

"And why should I listen to filthy mercenaries like you?" He sneered at Dagran, despite his polite attempt to separate the two.

"There's no point in trying to reason with this berk." Colon looked flabbergasted that she had called him a fool and his shock gave her the chance to storm off without him following her. She disappeared out of sight by the time he regained his composition and he sulked back to his family, looking like a dog that had gotten kicked. _Well he deserved that one. I don't know why he's so hung up on her. It must be because we're the only girls in our town that don't bow down to his desires. _The sound of shattering glass threw me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see that he had 'accidently' dropped his wine glass. I was saved the humiliation of having to clean it up for him when one of the nearby maids practically spring to action to clean of the blood red liquid and shards of glass. I slunk back to Dagran to get away from the obsessive man and continued to cater to the needs of the aristocrats. He pointed out to Zael, after telling him to stop yawning, Count Arganan and his background, and then pointed out Jirall, whom was Lady Calista's fiancé. Applauds filled the room as a knight announced the arrival of the Count's niece, a young familiar looking lady wearing a black dress. Jirall met her at the stairs and she begrudging took his arm.

"Zael, look. Isn't that..?"

"No doubt! It's Lisa!"

"Bet that's a shock."

"I wonder why she didn't tell us who she was. I guess she didn't want us to tell the guards?" It was the best guess I had for why she didn't inform us of her title. Zael watched her with concern in his eyes as she passed by us. She had a look of hurt, anger, sadness… Almost every negative emotion that humans could feel was written on her face.

"It's like she's a completely different person…" The dancing resumed when Lisa, no Lady Calista, sat down next to her uncle.

"She didn't even notice we were here…"

"I doubt she was even thinking that we would be here. I don't think Zael ever told her that we were mercenaries and you never told her who your father was." Dagran had a point about that but Zael barely noticed that either of us talking. Dagran told the younger man that it would be best to give up on Calista when he was looked focused on the Lady that he seemed like he was about to explode. She suddenly got up to leave for the balcony, looking quite ill. Her fiancé interrogated her before allowing her to leave, and then stated to the crowd that she was nervous since it was her first ball this grand. _Why does this guy remind me of Colon… _The thought made me nauseous. If he was anything like Colon then Lady Calista would never have her own life. She swiftly exited the room and Zael ran off after her, despite Dagran's advice. A knight even tried to stop him by telling him to go back to his post. He probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it wasn't for Dagran stepping in.

"Oh, boy…" The sigh was mostly to himself but I caught it. The leader rushed over to the knight, the younger man, and out of earshot. I watched from the distance as Dagran managed to convince the guard to leave his post and Zael slipped through to see Lady Calista. _Dagran most have quite the silver tongue. _About five minutes of serving people and glancing at the door where the two had disappeared, Jirall marched through the unguarded entryway. _This could be no good._ I tried to get to the door, hoping to break up whatever fight was about to happen, but with every few steps I got stopped by a guest, wanting a drink or food or gossip._ Ugh, I'm getting nowhere! _There was a loud crash and rumbling and everyone looked around for the reason for the sound. An explosion occurred somewhere else in the castle and the screaming began. A figure fell down through a hole in the ceiling, followed by several more.

"What…? What's happening? Why are the Gurak here?" I tried to get the guest to safety while the knights fought off the enemies. My father and Sir Therius jumped into the battle, slashing away at the opposing force. When I had ushered the nobles to what I hoped was a safe place I ran back to my father's side and charged an attack.

"Mana, when did you learn magic?"

"That's a story for a later time dad." I had to focus on bringing my power from my core, as Yurick had instructed me. _I have to control it this time! _I felt the electricity flow through my body, heading to my hands so that it could be channeled out. _Deep breathes… Calm mind… _I shot out my attack at a Gurak warrior and it shocked him until his pulse stopped. A magic circle appeared on the floor from the shot, giving my comrades' weapons a boost. _Well that's new. I guess before my attacks were too weak to leave a circle._ Zael passed into the ring and attacked a nearby Gurak with the electrified sword. When it struck the Gurak fighter stopped momentary, paralyzed as the electricity wreaked havoc on his nervous system. Zael swung his sword, slicing the Gurak's leg. The steel went through the muscles and bones while blood leaked out from a major vein. It tried to put pressure on the leg to stop the bleeding, but in the end it wouldn't matter. Zael finished it off by cutting its head off. Its decapitated body twitched for a moment before going still. I casted another lighting spell, frying a second Gurak, whiles my father gracefully sliced through the warriors one after another. The other knights were practically useless; some of them even ran away. Even Lady Calista was pulling her own weight, casting holy magic or healing circles down. _Most of these knights are pathetic! It's a good thing that there are people like my father, Therius, and Zael around or this would be a disaster. _The corpses of Gurak warriors scattered the floor by the time the battle was over, as did a few of the Lazulis knights. Therius was bleeding heavily out of a gash in his forehead but he seemed content with walking it off. _Men. _I walked up to him and began to heal the wound. It looked a lot worse than it was but at least it wouldn't be covering his eye in blood anymore.

"Thank you, Lady Mana. It is amazing that you and your sister are so different." I flicked him in his forehead for the slight at my sister and then chuckled at his baffled expression.

"Speaking of your Ashlya, where is your sister, Mana?" My father cut into the conversation that had suddenly went from light-hearted to grim.

"She ran off earlier, when Colon was bothering her. I don't know where she went." In the midst of the battle I had forgotten that she wasn't near and now that it was brought to my foremost attention, I was starting to have an anxiety attack.

"Calm down, child. Go look for your sister." He pointed at two random knights and told them to accompany me. The knights and I separated from the group, heading towards the library, while my father and Therius left to find the Count and Zael and Calista darted to get to the exit. _It's the best bet of where she is. _I continued pumping my legs as hard as I could, leaving behind the knights that were weighed down by their heavy armor, but I didn't noticed for my thoughts were trained on finding my sister. I ignored the fires and knights fighting off the adversaries, my goal set on one thing. I darted into the library, finding only darkness.

"Ashlya? Ashlya, where are you?" I heard movement to my right and turned, hoping to see her face, but as soon as I turned my face got slammed by some kind of blunt object, the force tossing me into the table. The taste of iron filled my mouth and blood trickled down my mouth and my forehead throbbed viciously. I felt my eyes flutter as my vision went dark then something hoisted me up as my consciousness faded.

_I hate Colon. _I had been brooding in the library since the incident with my stalker when I heard the explosions. My eyes dashed around the archive and when the rumbling started I knew something was wrong. I ran past Mirania, who was guarding the library, telling her that I was going to investigate.

"Do be careful! I'll stay here in case something happens." I nodded in comprehension of the plan then ran out the door, practically barreling through screaming maids and nobles. The explosions had opened gaps in the roof, and figures were falling through the holes. _Someone's attacking the castle?! Who would have the nerve? _I ran to the nearest group of adversaries, noting that there was a knight down and a mage barely holding on. I grasped my sword and swung as hard as I could, hitting the foe with full force. The attack sliced cleanly through its armor and into its soft stomach. _If only Mana was here! She could tell me what these damn things are. They look familiar but I just can't put my finger on it… Wait, where is Mana? Shit, she could be in trouble! _I sliced through more of the bipedal antagonists and when that group was cleared out I darted downstairs. _Where could she be? _I heard screaming in the courtyard and rushed out to find more knights being pinned down by the adversaries, but no Mana. I ran into the battle and attacked one of the warriors just as it was about to chop of the head of a knight.

"Thanks lady! You saved my skin." I helped the knight back onto his feet and readied my sword again, charging at their healer. _It's best to take him out as soon as possible. _I leaped into the air and used the momentum for my attack. Slicing down, the mage's body was torn in half, from his trapezius and down through his chest. He wheezed as his lungs filled with blood and I moved to the next enemy. _There's too many of them for just us! _The situation was looking rather grim as many of the knights were either knocked out, dead, or fleeing. My own body was started to feel the toll of the battle after the fifth challenger. I kept cleaving through the group, but for every one I killed, two more would take their place. My breath started to become uneven, my muscles burnt. A mage threw a fire ball at me, hitting me dead on and I felt the hair on my arms begin to singe and my flesh blister. I hissed in pain and pushed myself from fainting, and I fell onto the ground.

"I can't believe they're here already. What have the patrols been doing?" A voice rang out through the courtyard and I felt a wave of relief. I looked up and saw Dagran and Zael, whom had set up an ambush.

"Zael, Dagran, thank god your here!" The smell of burning hair was still in the air and suddenly Dagran grabbed my hair and started swatting.

"What are you doing!?" The smell of burning stopped almost immediately after he did that and I reached up to find that most of my hair had been burnt off. Hair that I had been growing for five years was gone. _Now's not the time for mourning over hair. I have to find Mana! _I ran my hand through the damaged hair one more time before asking Zael and Dagran if they had seen my sister.

"I thought she was with you. She rushed off to find you when we all split up. Have you seen Lady Calista?" Panic seeped into my soul.

"I don't know what she looks like. I don't think I was there when they announced her. I haven't seen Yurick, Syrenne, and Lowell either. Mirania was in the library when I left to find out what the noise was." I tried to keep my voice even, but it was a difficult task. Dagran helped me back onto my feet and patted my head.

"Very well. And don't worry. We'll find Mana. Are you ok?" I nodded and he started questioning a knight that wasn't knocked out, asking where the Gurak had landed. _So that's what they are! No wonder they looked so familiar. I think at one point I 'learned' about them at school. _We headed to the east gate, where the Gurak had come from and found Syrenne and Lowell fighting more of the intruders. Zael and I headed to take the healers in the back out, him with a crossbow and me slashing at them with my sword. I slid underneath one of the Gurak, cutting his leg open and jumped back to my feet.

"Have you seen Yurick, Mana or Mirania?" Dagran asked while cutting through the horde.

"Nope, not me." Lowell had opted to use magic during this fight and when an ice circle formed on the ground Zael use Gale to diffuse it, causing the enemies to slip. The leader of the sell swords expressed his worry, but was assured by Lowell that they were fine. _I have a bad feeling about our missing members. _The thought crossed my mind as I locked swords with one the Gurak fighters. I jumped back as he tried to overpower me, throwing him off balance, and then pivoted on my heel to use the force of my turn to bring my sword down into his neck. Evading a swing from another attacker I stabbed the forward, impaling the soldier all the way through its heart. Zael jumped over one of them then sliced from behind as Dagran attacked one of the warriors that was hell bent on taking Zael out while his back was turned. When the battle ended the living being left beside us was an injured mage, who offered to upgrade our equipment.

"We don't have time to upgrade our gear Dagran!" Zael nodded in agreement and Dagran gave us a sharp look.

"I know you're both feeling impatient, but it would be better if we upgraded our gear now, so that if we have to fight stronger enemies we'll be prepared." He continued talking to the man and handed over the gear and money for the upgrades while Zael paced and I tapped my foot. Dagran gave Syrenne, Lowell, and me the breakdown of what had happened; Lady Calista had been kidnapped by the Gurak and it was up to us to save her.

"Well, that's just smashing! The Count will be impressed." _I wonder why Zael is so anxious to find her._ Dagran told Syrenne and Lowell to stay behind and try to find Yurick, Mirania, and Mana, while Zael, Dagran, and I rushed out of the east gate, heading towards the shore. As we ran across the cliff path we saw just how many ships the Gurak army had amassed.

"There's a monster up ahead. Help me!" A mage was cowering behind a fallen rock, shaking in fear. The monster was giant and being ridden by a Gurak warrior, like it was a war horse.

"We can't take that thing head on."

"Well if it's it that big it can't be too agile right?" I tried to help think of a plan to take the beast down and Dagran agreed with my statement.

"I'll lure it in with my gathering ability and then attack it from behind." He activated his light and the beast charged at him. Dagran and I leaped behind the monster and slashed at its exposed back while the mage casted a fire spell. The beast went down with all of us attacking its weak spot and the rider leaped off, becoming trapped between the four of us. Dagran sliced half of the rider's jaw off in the process of slitting his throat and he went down with a gargled cry. _I really hope Mana is ok… _We kept running down the path until we hit another wave of Gurak.

"Gurak in black armor?" I looked around and pointed out that they had surrounded us. We braced ourselves for the attack and the Lazulis mage began to prepare his fire spell. I sliced at one of the oncoming attackers, my blade barely nicking him.

"These ones are a lot tougher than the ones before!" I shouted out a warning to my comrades while slicing at the guards in black. There were just too many of them and whenever we would swing at them they would block.

"Zael, diffuse one of the fire circles! That should cancel out their ability to guard our attacks!" Zael quickly followed Dagran's order and the enemies fell quickly. We continued down the path when another explosion hit.

"They're firing some of their canons!" The missile hit the rocks above us, causing them to become unsteady.

"Zael, fire at those rocks. It should fall on the Gurak soldiers." Zael listened to Dagran once more and took out his crossbow. Loading it with an explosive arrow, he fired at the shaky rocks, causing a land slide to wipe the adversaries away. Another beast and rider charged at us, and we took cover until it pasted us. Zael slashed it while Dagran and I worked on dismounting the rider. I jumped on top of the mount, plunging my sword through the rider's skull just as Zael defeated the monster. I hopped down and we followed the path hitting another wave of Gurak. I cleaved a path in the group, allowing Dagran to get to the rear. He swiftly took out the archers, and then fought his way back towards me. Zael diffused another fire circle, cancelling their ability to guard and I hit one of the soldiers upwards then Dagran swung done, splitting the foes flesh. The mage casted another flame spell, hitting a guard head on. The smell of burning flesh and hair entered the air again, causing me to become slightly nauseous. My flesh tingled from the fresh burns that were still on my flesh, but I pushed the pain away once more. We headed up the path again, until we hit an open area. Standing there was a tall Gurak man; his arms crossed in disdain and two men behind him surrounding what appeared to be Lisa. Zael rushed into the battle, yelling at the man to give Calista back. I glanced to the back again in confusion. _Surely he meant Lisa… Unless Lisa is Calista! _The pieces fell together quickly as I realized that the girl we met the other day was none other than the Count's ward.

"Well, well, the human from the castle. Blessed with bravery, guts, and stupidity." The tall Gurak looked at Zael with disgust.

"Zael, don't do anything rash! You can't take him on your own!"

"Yeah, Zael, we can't rush in head on! Take a moment to calm down!" Zael ignored both of us, running straight for the man.

"Ugh, reinforcements. Zael, we've got your back!" Dagran and I readied our blades once more and began to slay the oncoming attackers. After a few minutes I heard Zael slam into a pillar and looked behind me to see the Gurak about to throw the final blow, when something miraculous happened. A strange aura appeared around him when Calista yelled his name, guarding him from the powerful attacks. I focused my eyes back at the oncoming attack before I got myself killed, blocking just in time. We finished slicing through the soldiers and ran to meet Zael and Calista when cannons began to fire.

"Watch out!" I managed to move out of the one when and an explosion hit right where I had been standing.

"We're going to be blown to bits!"

"And no one in the castle knows were here!"

"Well Dagran, we're going to have to make a decision! And I would rather it be sooner than later!"

"What about the sea?" Dagran quickly shot that suggestion down, saying we'd be drowned rats.

"Dagran I don't see anywhere else for us to go!" I countered. He gave Zael and me knowing looks and my stomach dropped.

"What, Dagran, don't tell me-" He looked at us seriously and I knew he had a point. The only way we would survive this is by boarding that ship. Zael looked at Calista, asking about her.

"What about me? I don't see any other way out of this!" We jumped into the water and climbed up the rope that led up the ship's boarding area and then we hid, biding our time.

"Now what, oh great and wise leader?" The island was getting further away as the ship raised its sails and he rolled his eyes at my smart remark.

"We can get to the cabins if we go along the hull. It's dangerous, but there should be footholds." Zael nodded and begin to head toward the edge when Dagran asked for a word with him. I used this time to talk to Calista.

"So, Calista, why did you run away from the castle the other day? Surely it's not that bad." She looked at me with surprise and went into a rant about how everyday she's locked up, always having someone watching her, even when she was asleep and how her fiancé was someone that she despised.

"I can understand why you left now. I couldn't begin to imagine what life would be like if I were you. Well at least you'll be going on some adventure and getting away from your crazy fiancé. We're in the same boat there almost. Only mine's an abusive, half-witted, stalker, who has somehow deluded himself into thinking that I'm his fiancée, even though no one has agreed to it." She chuckled at my description of the creepy noble and I glanced back at Zael and Dagran to find the optimistic swordsmen gone and Dagran telling him not to fall in and get pneumonia. I looked over the edge to watch him work his way across the hull. He almost fell in when cannons opened up but he adjusted his grip and worked on until he climbed up and out of sight. We heard and attack happen in the room attached to the porch-like area we were hiding then heard Zael give the all clear through the door. We went in and saw a badly injured man bleeding onto the floor. Calista rushed to the man's aid and quickly healed the poor bloke.

"There's still loads of us trapped here! Please, guv, you've gotta save us! Oh yeah! Some of 'em were wearing dandy clobber like you lot!" The information made me perk up.

"He must mean Mirania and Yurick."

"Did you see a girl with blue hair in a maid outfit?" I squatted down so that I was at eye-level with the man and he nodded.

"I don't know where they took 'em though." It was enough material for me to get happy about, even if it was minuscule amount.

"Don't worry, we'll save everyone." The man mentioned that he was from Lazulis Island and that he couldn't believe that they would fire cannons at us, and then offered to upgrade our equipment. _I feel like everyone can upgrade things on this island… _I shrugged the thought off and decided to look at it as a blessing and we went to the next door.

"Someone's out there." Zael was peering through the door, trying to be as quiet as possible to avoid detection.

"Try not to alert them. We don't want the whole ship attacking us." He nodded at me and mentioned that the sentry's back was completely exposed. He slashed the Gurak's back open and we kept walking through the small route. Zael took out the second sentry before it could raise an alarm, slicing though it's exposed back and severing the spine. We opened the door to find nothing but a ladder leading down, and when we got to the next floor Calista ran through the passageway, stating no one was there.

"Calista wait!" Zael and I both yelled at the same time but we were too late in the warning as an ogre came out of the door from the next room and slammed the girl hard with its mace, sending her flying past us. I turned around to assist her while Dagran and Zael attacked the brute.

"She's pretty suicidal for an aristocrat." I snorted at Dagran's remark and pulled the fallen girl back onto her feet.

"You ok?" She nodded and brushed herself off, then began to charge up a healing circle. I joined the other two swordsmen and sliced at the ogre. Just as I was about to slice at it a cannonball went through the wall and into the monster, causing it to shudder and fall over dead, all of its internal organs smashed by the force of the projectile. We went through the entryway into the next room and spotted more sentries. Dagran instructed Zael to lure the over one at a time so that they couldn't call out for help. He pulled out his crossbow and shot an arrow out, causing the Gurak to look around and head in our direction. When he was alone we ambushed him, slicing his neck before he could call for help. We went deeper into the room and spotted another sentry.

"Let me us my magic!" Calista was becoming increasingly restless and Dagran pointed out that if we rush in more people are likely to be killed. Zael shot the lookout and lured him near us, and then he attacked him from behind while covering his mouth to keep the dying screams from attracted more Gurak. Another cannonball hit the ship, rocking it and causing us to fall over.

"Is everyone alright?" I got up and picked up the key that the Gurak. Walking over the lift, I placed the key into the lock on the gate. _A perfect fit._ The gate creakily opened and the door to the lift was pulled down.

"It's empty. Dagran, what now?" It didn't seem like the lift would be coming anytime soon. I dropped a coin down to see how deep it was. _Too deep to just jump down._ The sound of the coin hitting the floor didn't occur for a good minute. We all sat there trying to think of what to do next when Zael found the ladder that was used in emergencies.

"Good find, Zael!" Zael began to climb down after he said that it should take us down to ship's hold. We climbed down, and while we descended Zael and Calista talked. He had told her to be careful and he assured her that there was no reason to be concerned. Another cannon hit the ship, causing it to shake again and Calista fell down the ladder, taking Zael with her and I heard a loud crash as they hit the floor below.

"Do you think they're ok?" I kept my eyes focused on the rungs of the ladder to keep me from having a date with the floor like the two before me.

"I'm sure they're fine. Though, we should hurry down this ladder before Zael and Calista run into more trouble." Another shake made Dagran slip. I reached out and barely caught him, giving him enough time to grab the ladder again.

"We still have to be careful. I don't think I can catch you with me above you now. Also you're a lot heavier than you look." He reached up and pinched my calf at the tease, causing me to yelp, and we worked our way down the ladder. When we reached the ground we found that the others had gone on ahead.

"Best we find them." I followed Dagran's lead. We went through the first opening to find a half opened door. I tried to open it all the way but it wouldn't budge, so we resorted to squeezing through it. I joked with Dagran, telling him not to get his heavy arse stuck in the door, which resulted in another pinch, though this time in the arm. As we worked our way through the ship I heard fighting.

"Dagran, do you hear that?"

"Yeah. Let's proceed with caution." We slowly walked into the room to find Yurick, Mirania, Zael, and Calista fighting what appeared to be giant spiders. I felt my body freeze in fear and I began to shake. _Spiders… Why spiders…?! _

"Ashlya, move!" I tried to but my body wasn't responding. Zael pushed me out of the way just as the fangs of the arachnid went to clamp down on me.

"Ashlya are you ok? You seem pale." I tried to shake my phobia away. My mind knew that I needed to fight to survive, but my body wasn't responding. I couldn't even reply to Zael's question and he threw me into a corner then leaped back into the battle, attacking the monstrous spider from behind. When the battle was over everyone gathered around me to find me hyperventilating.

"Ashlya, get a hold of yourself!" I took a few gulps of air and Mirania passed me some water that she carried around for emergencies.

"Do you have a fear of spiders?" The question that she asked made me nod my head. I composed myself again and avoided looking at the dead spiders, knowing that it would cause another episode of panic.

"Sorry I was so useless. Spiders have terrified me since I was younger. I was almost eaten by one when I was seven… I just haven't gotten over it since." Zael gave me a sympathetic pat on the back.

"Don't worry, we all have fears. For example I'm scared of not having food. Just the thought causes me to shudder." I shakily laughed at Mirania's attempt to cheer me up and stood up with help from Zael.

"Well let's move on. I should be more useful as long as there are no more spiders." We climbed up another ladder and Zael opened the trapdoor that led to the next room. The sight we came across was brutal. Two Gurak solders were standing over a man, whipping him with a cat o' nine tails. His back was starting to blister and bleed.

"Zael, can you lure the guard over." He nodded and pulled out his crossbow. We waited until the guard came close enough and Zael jumped out and slashed him. The other guard tried to retaliate but before he could draw his sword I stabbed him in the head, penetrating his brain. We entered the next room, where several people were being held. _I hope Mana is here… _We had been through most of the ship and I still had not seen my blue haired kin. We got into position so that Zael could attract the guards one at a time. When the first guard went to investigate the arrow fire I leaped out from behind him and cut his back open. We moved on to the next tear, but Zael missed with his next slash attack, alerting the rest of the enemies of our presence. Yurick through down a fire spell while Calista hit their mage with a holy attack. Her attack forced light into the mage's bloodstream, and he exploded, his body parts flinging across the room. Through the gore and havoc caught sight of a blue haired figure trapped in one of the enclosures. She was sitting on the floor, limp with her head down.

"Guys, Mana is trapped in there! She's not moving!" My voice boomed through the chaos to the other members and everyone speed up in an attempt to quickly finish the battle. Yurick got hit by an arrow and he reacted with a scorching spell, causing the archer to become a crispy corpse. As the battle raged on my sister didn't even twitch and fear began to spread. When the opposing force's bodies were littering the floor I searched for the lever to release the bars trapping the other civilians and Mana. They shuttered open as I threw the switch as fast as I could and ran over to my fallen sister.

"Mana! Mana, wake up!" I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, hoping to raise her from her unconsciousness, but her head just lolled back. I heard another battle happening behind me. Ignoring it I slapped her cheek softly. She responded to nothing. The screams of Gurak and the civilians were a blur to me as my head throbbed and my eyes stung. I felt wetness fall down my cheeks when I saw that she had stopped breathing.

"Mana…? Mana… Please… Wake up. Please…" My voice cracked and the tears began to fall more rapidly. I barely recognized that someone had pushed me aside and was hovering over my sister's limp form. The person laid Mana on her back and brought his mouth down onto hers, forcing breath into her. _What a weird time to be kissing her. _Nothing made sense to me. He pushed down on her chest and brought his lips down on hers again and a small cough came out. Her eyes fluttered slightly and eventually lifted.

"Yurick..?" Her voice was broken. She grasped her head and groaned. I rushed to be near her side and ran my hand through her soft hair.

"What's going on? My head is pounding and my body feels like it's been broken to pieces." She tried to rise up and she immediately cried out in pain. Mirania gently moved me so that she could start trying to heal her broken body and a civilian came over.

"I'm surprised you're alive lass. They kept beating you, even when you were unconscious. Apparently they didn't like the fact that you kept shocking them, even when you weren't aware. I reckon they broke just about every bone in your body." Looking down at the parts Mirania hadn't healed yet I realized it was probably true. Her legs were bent in strange positions and bruised besieged almost every inch of her porcelain skin. The forest mage was currently working on fixing her hands, which looked almost like it was crushed by a heavy object.

"I'm going to find whoever did this and crush his skull in!" I growled while standing up. _No one hurts my sister like this and lives. _

"Well, we're going to have to wait a while, since it will take a least an hour to heal her. Luckily her spine wasn't broken and none of her nerves took damage." With one hand healed Mana began to help the other healer restore her body to its original state. She winced when Mirania's hand went over her ribs, an indication that her ribs where among the things that had been crushed.

"So what happened exactly?" Zael asked the question that all of us were thinking.

"Well, I was going to the library to find Ashlya when suddenly I got hit in the head." Mirania nodded. Apparently this was what had happened to her as well.

"When I came too I was being dragged by my hair onto a boat." She brought her newly healed arm up to her head and her hand came back with dried blood. "I tried to shock the guy, but it was too weak and just pissed him off. He threw me onto the ground and stomped down on my hands. I almost threw up from the sound that they made and the pain was excruciating. He grabbed me by the hair again, but my body went into instinct and started shocking him without me trying. He threw me back onto the ground and started kicking me senseless. I tried to escape but the other guards caught me and one of them hit me in the chest with some kind of poll. After that I don't remember. The next thing I knew Yurick was hovering over me and you were crying while Zael and Dagran were trying to keep you from lashing out from panic. You actually punched Dagran in the mouth." She flexed her foot once Mana fixed her legs and she shakily stood up._ Was I acting that intense? _I didn't remember doing that to the leader. I looked at him and saw that his face was a little swollen.

"Sorry Dagran. I guess I flipped out..." He shrugged it off and told me it was now big deal. I helped stabilize Mana's standing and Mirania began healing any wounds on her back. There were lash marks from whips. Soon they were healed and my sister began to stretch her limbs out. The bruises were all but gone and her color was back to normal.

"By the way Yurick why were you hovering over me?" She looked over at the fire mage who diverted his eyes from her curious glance.

"Yurick here saved your life. I didn't know you knew how to do CPR." She looked confused at Dagran's remark.

"Why did I need CPR?"

"Because you stopped breathing, you clot." She blinked a couple times then turned a rather brilliant shade of red. She touched her lips and the blood in her face deepened.

"Don't think too much of it." She nodded at his off handed comment but the blush didn't subside.

"Well, let's go. We still have a ship to capture. The ship's not going to go anywhere with no oarsmen. "

"Yeah. Now we just take out the captain!" The optimist's remark was slightly reduced Yurick's cynical attitude but we all headed to the deck none the less when Dagran urged us on. As we rode the elevator up to the surface a stench was carried by the wind to us.

"They have an ogre? What a pain. Draw it in and finish it." We hunkered down behind some crates while Zael took out his crossbow and shot a bolt at the behemoth, causing it to stomp over to us. Dagran and I snuck behind the beast. As soon as its back was facing us we jumped at it, going for its exposed rear. Our swords dug into its weak unarmored flesh. It roared in pain when Zael slashed at its weak legs. Mana and Yurick shot spells at it, Mana's paralyzing it and Yurick's burning the tough epidermis. It charged at Yurick, swinging its mace into his torso. He was flung back and almost thrown into the sea but was grabbed by Zael before he toppled over.

"You ok?" Yurick nodded and began charging his spell again. Calista was the monster's next target and with one hit from his pole Calista went down. I ran up to the beast and jumped. Using the gravity and momentum I plunged my blade into his chest, aiming for a vital organ. Dagran and Zael went for its exposed back again. At the same time my weapon hit his lung, Dagran cut the tendons in its legs and Zael severed its spine. It fell over, unable to move its legs, and Zael used the chance to thrust his sword into its head. As it fell over, its brains started to trickle out of the holes in its skull. Once we made sure that no other foes lurking around, we headed to the captain's quarters. In one of the rooms heading to the leader's room we found a man that had managed to escape and hide for a while well the combat was happening. He offered to upgrade our gear and when that was done we headed up the stairs to the captain's room.

"I heard a lot of hullaballoo outside, I s'pose you're the ones responsible?"

"So, you're the big boss, right?" The captain began to monologue after this and some sort of stomping echoed through the room. Suddenly a huge creature burst through the wall, while the captain of this ship laughed saying it was his pet. _Apparently no one told it about having a master. _It had thrown the skipper across the room with one fell swipe of its maul.

"Was that supposed to happen?" We prepared for the upcoming attack as it roared aggressively.

"How did they get a Muruk?" Mana's question was left unanswered. After a few hits that just seemed to bounce off its heavy armor it started to spin in an attempt to get rid of our sad attempts to take it out. Needles shot out into the air, full with a paralyzing toxin. We begin to shake off the needles to knock them out and I jumped into a heal circle. It did its job, pushing the rest of the contaminants out of my blood stream.

"Oh my! He was spinning so much that he got himself all dizzy! Silly thing!" Zael used the chance to knock it down and attacked its soft gut. It cried out in pain and blood started to pour out of the fresh wounds.

"We need a way to stop the needles from hitting us! Zael, try to diffuse my circles! They should create barriers against it." Zael nodded at Calista's suggestion. He used gale just as the Muruk spun around again. The spines bounced off the barriers and when the beast became dizzy again Zael pushed it back down and we all wailed on it. Zael jumped back onto it and stabbed into his chest. The monster thundered in rage and began to spin again, going on a whirling rampage around the room. Mana, Dagran, Mirania and I dodged just as it went past them, but Yurick, Zael, Calista weren't as lucky. They were knocked across the room and there was a sickening crunching sound as Zael's head hit the wall.

"Zael, are you ok?" He stood up and nodded his head; though the act was unconvincing since blood was trickling down his face. He jumped into a heal circle and waited until he was fully healed before darted out to the other fallen members. His strange power revived them as he ran past and we started trying to pick through the Muruk's thick skin. Another holy spell was diffused and when the needles flew the barrier deflected them. I knocked it off balance and when it fell over Zael leaped on its stomach and attacked its core. Blood squirted out of the wounds that Zael had inflected. The Muruk started to gurgle and blood came out of its maw and it let out a dying snarl. It convulsed violently and when its body stopped we gathered around and pushed it out of the hole in the cabin.

"Well now that's over, let's tell everyone else on board." We walked out and Mirania began to mother us, making sure everyone was healed.

"I'm glad that everyone is ok." I wrapped my arm around Mana's shoulders and pulled her into a small hug. _I won't let her get hurt like that again. _It was a vow that I was determined to keep.

"So Mana, did you know your sister has an intense fear of spiders?"

"Yep! A good prank to pull on her is to place a dead spider on her when she's asleep." She laughed evilly when I gave her a glare at the prospect of being pranked.

"Hey now, you don't want to prank me! I will retaliate and it will be much worse!" I threaten the group, but Zael had a dangerous type of smile on his face. _He better not even think about it!_

"Well, if we're done here then I think I'm going to rest a bit." Yurick departed, and I had to agree the idea of rest. I followed Yurick until we found the sleeping area.

"Yurick, thanks for saving her. I was pretty hopeless. "I curled into a cot.

"Well, I couldn't lose my first student. That would look terrible on a work record." I smiled at his attempt to brush off the thanks and rolled over. Closing my eyes I felt myself drift off into a well needed rest.


	5. Chapter 5: Screw Mother Nature

Thanks again to Naarastiikeri and MusicalTides for the reviews (I always get super happy when you guys take the time to express what you liked and disliked) and thanks Sum fui futurus for the subscription! With no further delays, here's chapter five!

Disclaimer: I wish I owned it but I don't. Maybe one day I'll develop a game as awesome as this one!

Chapter Five: Screw Mother Nature.

The first thing Ashlya did when I woke her up was scream. I can understand why, since I was hovering over her with a pair of rather sharp looking scissors… She jumped back, hitting her head on the wall next to her cot.

"Wha… WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I heard someone groan in aggravation from another cot in the room. I grabbed her by the arm to usher her out of the room, preventing any other disturbances for the people sleeping still and rushing up the stairs, feeling terribly nauseous.

"Your hair is a mess. I was going to trim the dead ends off. What happened to it anyways?" Now that her grogginess was gone my motives were a lot clearer to her. I let go of her arm as we went to the main deck while she explained that her hair caught fire during one of the fights at the castle. When we got up to the deck and I caught sight of the horizon I felt myself recover my equilibrium and my stomach settled down slightly.

"Are you ok? You're not looking to well." I waved her off and proceeded to cut off the frayed ends of her once long hair. The dead ends puddled on the floor and with each strand that dropped, her face fell into deeper dismay.

"There's another thing that damned knight has on me now." My mouth turned downwards slightly at her murmurs. When I finished it fell just barely past her chin. She ran a hand through it and frowned.

"It's a lot lighter now." Her voice was small, like a child that had lost her favorite thing in the world.

"Well, it looks really good like that. And now it won't get in the way whenever you're fighting." She ran her hand through the brown locks again and nodded.

"So did you thank Yurick for saving you by the way?" I felt my turned some random shade of crimson at her mention of the lifesaving breath the fire mage had given me.

"You should do that soon. I'm going to head back down to find food. Are you coming?" I shook my head furiously and began to feel queasy at the mention of heading back down.

"No, no, I'll just stay up here… In the open… Where I can see the horizon and have fresh air." She raised an eyebrow at my peculiar behavior, but decided to leave me to my own devices. _As long as I'm not forced to go inside, I should be fine… _The nausea hit me whenever I was in the closed off rooms in anything that moved. _I wonder if Mirania has any herbs that would help… _I didn't get a chance to weigh the pros and cons to going back down into the cabin for my thoughts were interrupted by the masculine voice of the person I was hoping not to run into for a while.

"You're up rather early. Since you're up we might as well start your lessons." I inwardly groaned.

"Where will we be training?" _Please let it be outside… Please let it be outside… _My hopes where crushed when he informed me that we would be training inside the old captain's quarters.

"It's pretty big and out of the way of most people, so it's the ideal location right now." I managed to nod weakly and I followed him into the quarters, legs becoming shakier the farther we went away from the deck. My stomach felt like it was doing flips and my mouth tasted like acid by the time we made it into the room.

"Now, sit down and start meditating, like usually." I sat down and tried to steady my breathing, which was becoming out rickety and shallow. I felt my stomach heave slightly and I swallowed the bile down. I calmed my breathing down again and tried to not think of the swaying of the boat.

"Take this." I looked up to see my teacher handing me a cup of some kind of tea.

"What is it?" I tilted my head in confusion and sniffed the brew before taking a drink.

"It will help with sea sickness." _How did he know? _ I looked up at him in shock and he gave me a knowing glance.

"You we're looking a little green when you got your sister this morning. I figured that was the case." _So that's who groaned this dawn… Oops..._

"Sorry about waking you up…" It was a strange mix of spicy, earthy, and sweet.

"It's ginger tea. I had it sweetened with some honey I found, since both help alleviate unsettled stomachs."

"How do you know so much about ship first aid?" I had said it out of genuine curiosity and immediately regretted saying anything. He's face turned sour as soon as the words came out.

"Are you feeling less ill?" _He's avoiding the subject. Best not to push it… _I nodded and he swiftly instructed me to start my meditation again. With my stomach now calmed it was easier to breathe deeply, but when I did there was a sharp pain in my left lung. I ignored it, focusing solely on finding my orb of power.

"Why are you wheezing?" I snapped out of my peacefully state of mind when his voice penetrated it.

"I'm wheezing?" He yanked me off of my spot on the floor and put his ear against my back, listening to my inhalations. The sudden movements made my lung flare up.

"Why didn't you tell us that your lung wasn't healed, you gumby?!"

"I'm sure it's healed! It's probably just a little bruised still!" He gave me a look that clearly said he wasn't buying it before dragging me to the kitchen, where Mirania was currently wolfing food down.

"We're never going to finish you're training if you retain ailments from me." He all but tossed me over to Mirania, who looked a smudge confused.

"Can you check her lungs? She was wheezing when we started training." The dark haired healer gobbled the rest of her food down before gracefully moving off her seat and coming towards us.

"I keep telling him that it's probably just a little bruised." I knew that I probably shouldn't argue about it, but it really wasn't bothering me too much.

"Well, it's better safe than sorry." Mirania smiled before pressing her ear against my back and instructed me to take a deep breath. The wheezing started almost immediately and I started to cough. Bringing my hand back down, I spotted slight red.

"Was that blood?" His presence was starting to make me uncomfortable since it seemed like nothing went unnoticed from the cynical man.

"Well she was right. It is a pulmonary contusion, so it won't be a hard fix. Luckily it wasn't a hole and that you noticed it so quickly." Her hands started to glow with magic and I could feel the healing effects on my lung. The wheezing quickly stopped as the internal tissue was repaired and I could feel Yurick's criticizing eye on me. I fidgeted slightly as Mirania finished her work on my lung, trying to ignore his glare that was trying to pin me down.

"Are you getting a fever now? You're turning red." _Ugh! Stupid fair skin! _I shook my head and felt my heart start to race slightly. Mirania jumped slightly and started giggling, causing me and Yurick to look at her bewildered.

"You, teehee, shocked me, hehehee!" I heated up more from the accidently shock.

"Thus showing how little control you actually have. Let's finish up training before you summon a lightning storm." I begrudgingly followed him back into the captain's lodging, feeling ashamed of my lack of control. I sat back down on the cold wooden floor and tried to not get too down while my teacher leaned against one of the pillars in the room, crossing his arms. Focusing on my breathing, I found the sphere of electricity much easier this time. It was sparking erratically and I tried to calm it down before it took over me again.

"Once you have taken hold of your magic, I want you to shot it at these targets. I heard from Zael that you manage to make a spell circle during the Gurak attack. I want to see how powerful it is." I opened my eyes to find that he had procured five wooden and hay targets. I targeted the one in the middle and shot a blast of star magic at it.

"Well, it's not the biggest, but it's better than nothing." _He really does not know how to give compliments... _I decided that it was best to not say anything. He walked over the circle and stepped into it to test its potency. His hair started to spike upwards and he took out his magic dagger, which had started sparking and glowing with my star magic. He nodded before stepping out of the circle, a slightly mischievous look on his face. He walked up to me and placed a single digit on my arm, giving me small shock of static.

"Ouch! Hey, what was that for?" He resumed his originally position against the column and looked like a laugh was about to appear on his usually stoic face.

"That's for the other day." My face fell into a scowl at the mention of the accident, but he just disregarded me.

"Let's try to get the circle larger. The larger the circle, the greater your damage range is. Currently yours is about one meters wide. Let's try to make it two. Focus on your core again and try to make it larger." I stopped my sulking when he continued his lessons and found the static sphere again. _Each time is easier. I guess I should probably thank him for all he's done. _I started to expand the ball of energy, keeping a balance so that it wouldn't take over me. I attacked the next undamaged target; a bright flash and a loud crash of thunder, followed by the smell of burning hay and wood. A circle appeared on the ground, the hue such a light purple that it was almost white.

"Well, it's a tad bit bigger. Once more. And this time actually try." I gave him a glare, but he just stood there nonchalantly, staring at the circle that I had recently created. I went back into my relaxed state and made my orb larger. I heard the cracking of static and this time I pushed all of the energy through my arms and into my hands, instead of just letting a controlled amount. _He wants a lot? Fine, I'll give him everything. _Once the globe of magic was as large as my head I threw it at the next fully intact dummy. The crack of the lightning was deafening and the flash caused me to go momentarily blind. A lot of my strength went into the attack, leaving me feeling faint. My breath came out choppy and heavy as I tried to get enough oxygen. The room was heavy with static, giving it a suffocating feeling.

"I suppose it's better than before." His criticism was cut short when Dagran came in.

"Are you two going to eat? You've been in here for at least two hours and everyone is about to have breakfast. I think someone made kedgeree, some rashers, and some porridge. If you don't hurry Mirania might devour the lot." _Huh… It doesn't feel like it's been that long… _My stomach growled angrily at the prospect of food. And with him listing foods that had been made, it only got worse.

"Once she has made a circle at least two meters I'll let her leave. This one was only one and a half, at best." My head turned sharply to look at him then at the circle in disbelief.

"But I'm hungry! I can't concentrate when I'm hungry!" He rolled his eyes and Dagran started to chuckle.

"This conversation sounds oddly familiar. Wasn't Syrenne whining about the same thing a while back?"

"Yeah, and I'm about to tell her the same thing I told Syrenne. If you have enough energy to whine like that I'm sure you'll be fine." He whacked me on the head with that damnable paper fan again before recommencing his post against the pole. I sighed, accepting that I wasn't going to win this battle, and closed my eyes to ease myself back to the center of power. It was the smallest that I had ever seen it, from where I had thrown just about everything that I had out in the last attack. _I wonder if he would notice if I took a quick doze. _The idea was becoming more appeasing the longer I saw the pathetic amount of power I had left. _Well the pros would be that I would regain energy and be more alert. The cons would be that piece of shit fan and his fury if he found out that I wasn't meditating and was actually asleep. I wonder if he would keep teaching me. He would probably catch me and say 'the enemy isn't going to wait for you to take a nap'. _I quickly decided against the quick rest. _I really am not in the mood for a scolding. _I tried to stretch the orb out and repeated what I had done last time, only I pushed the amount further. _It has to be stronger this time. Just a little more! _I threw it at one of the few remaining dummies, my magic striking it with fury. When it hit there was a slight tremor that went through the wooden floor and my hair started to stand on its ends from so much static in such an enclosed space. He stepped through it, counting his footsteps.

"Two point one. Very well, go eat. You've reached my goal for today." I stood up, my legs shaking, and I knew that he would notice.

"Why didn't you tell me you were at your limit?" He sounded frustrated.

"I didn't think it would be that big of a deal." Another hit on the head with that freaking fan.

"Will you stop that?!" I reached for the fan and he deftly moved and stuck my head again. I began to feel more irate and I'm not sure if it was the lack of food, intense disdain he constantly showed me, or something else but a piece in me snapped.

"You little arse! If you don't stop hitting me with that fucking fan, I'm going to rip you a new one! Fuck you, you gumby! You're as thick as shit! " As soon as the words came, embarrassment washed over me. The sudden wave of shame caused me to feel like crying and I ran out of the room and away from his shocked face. My stomach hurt from the lack of food and I was getting a headache from the sudden shifting emotions. I headed straight to the kitchen to find Ashlya waiting for me. _She saved me food._

"I've been waiting for almost an hour! I just barely managed to save this one from Miran… Are you ok?" Her playful attitude quickly shifted to concern when she caught sight of my watery eyes.

"I just called Yurick a little shit and yelled at him and I feel so bad about it now!" She rubbed my back as I started to cry.

"Mana, when was your last cycle?" I looked at her with for clarity about her question then started to try to remember.

"About three weeks ago." The confusion that I had about her question lifted instantaneously when I realized what she was hinting at. _Why now of all times?! _ I took a bite into the porridge Ashlya had saved me.

"I'll try to find Mirania for supplies. Mine is probably going to hit soon too. For now, maybe you should apologize to Yurick. I'm sure he went into shock when our passive Mana went berserk on him." Shame washed over me again and I knew she was right. _I really don't want to see him right now… He's probably pissed off… Damn hormones… Well at least she realized what was up. My mood swings aren't usually this bad… _I went off to find the man that I had insulted, avoiding everyone else just in case I decided to go off again. I looked through the whole ship and was about to give up. The call of the seagulls brought my attention upwards and I saw them fluttering around the crow's nest and a flash of white hair. I climbed up the ladder on the mast and was soon greeted by the sight of my teacher feeding the sea birds bread crumbs. He either didn't notice my presence or, the more likely choice, elected to ignore it. I quietly pulled myself up and continued to watch him feed the winged creatures, who had also opted to disregard me as while if it meant food. _He looks kind of peaceful like this. _

"Did you come here to gawk at me or insult and threaten me again?" My face turned red and I began to tug at my azure hair nervously.

"I'm… I'm sorry… I didn't really mean those things…" I tried to not stutter when he gave me a cold glance and he was on me in a minute. He put his hands on either side of me, pinning me between the railing and him. I shrunk back slightly when he brought his head down to eye level with mine. _I never noticed how much taller he is._

"If you didn't mean it, why did you say it?" His voice was icy and I felt like crying again, even though there was no real reason for it. _I hate being like this. Maybe I should stay away from everyone until my mood swings calm down._

"I… I'm having something going on that's really hard to explain." I blushed at the thought of telling him that I was about to start my menstrual cycle but my hopes were shattered when he refused to move.

"I'm sure I can understand anything that your feeble mind has to say." His insult cut deep and I knew that he was a lot angrier with me than he originally let on. I tried to maintain eye contact with him but it was becoming increasingly hard when I felt my eyes starting to water.

"And now you're crying. Pathetic."

"I'm about to start my cycle, ok!?" I practically shouted it at him and his mouth snapped shut. He diverted his visible eye from mine, basically turning his head to look at anything but me. I almost started to laugh at his uncomfortable face but decided that it was probably not such a good idea, since he was probably still rather upset with me. He turned back to me after a few seconds and his gaze had become less irritated.

"Will this happen every time?" His voice was even and much less harsh.

"No. It's usually not even this bad." _I'm glad he isn't as livid now. _He no longer looked like he was going to push me over the ledge and his body language was calmer now. He sighed and moved away from me to gaze off into the distance. I didn't notice how warm he was until his body wasn't encasing mine and a part of me oddly missed the heat.

"Well, I guess it could be worse. Syrenne once attacked Zael when she was having hers." My eyes widened at the thought of the alcoholic swordswoman assaulting the loveable blonde man.

"Yeah, he had said something to her about Lowell and she just went off. He wouldn't come near her for almost two weeks." The anger had almost completely left by this point.

"I am really sorry about that. I didn't mean any of it… Also thank you for even teaching me. And for saving my life yesterday when you all found me." He turned his gaze back to me when I mentioned that.

"Hmph. Well it would have been an annoyance if you had died. And besides, I didn't do much. I just helped you start breathing. If your heart had stopped I don't think I would have been able to do anything. We start training again tomorrow at dawn. Don't be late." With that he left me alone with my thoughts. _I'm surprised that he's still willing to train me after what I said. I probably shouldn't push my luck and try to keep myself from going off again. _The seagulls tilted their heads, trying to see if I would finish feeding them. They soared off when they saw that I had nothing for them. The sound of metal hitting metal brought my attention back to the deck. Peering over the ledge I saw Ashlya and Dagran practicing swordplay. _She's gotten a lot better. It must be because she's no longer only training with one person and she's been able to have real battles. _Her sword technique was throwing the man off balance. At the beginning of the battle she had started off with her right hand but halfway through, she switched hands. _I guess Dagran didn't know that she's primarily left handed. _He readjusted after a few minutes and started to push her back. In once nimble movement he blocked one of her attacks and knocked her sword out of her hand. He said something to her and she laughed before going and retrieving her fallen sword, but the words were lost in the wind. _I guess I should probably make my way down as well._ I descended down the ladder and when I reached the bottom, Zael and Dagran were now combating. They were almost even in strength, but Dagran obviously had more experience and the spar was over quickly with Zael on the floor pouting. The dark haired man helped Zael back up and gave him pointers while ruffling his hair. We gathered around Dagran when he beckoned us for a meeting.

"Well, I guess now we can finally get back to Lazulis."

"I expect Syrenne and Lowell are worried about us!" The mention of the lively red head and the flirty ice mage made me slightly homesick.

"I'm sure our father is worried about us too. It wouldn't surprise me if he had gathered up a fleet to find us…"

"I'm sure he wouldn't go that far, Ashlya." Our chatter was cut off by Dagran.

"Actually… I was thinking of trying to pursue the rest of the Gurak fleet." We looked at him with astonishment as he went on to explain why. _He does have a point about impressing the Count. _

"Well at least we'd surprise them. But seriously… I have to say, it's just one ship against a fleet. To my surprise Zael agreed with Dagran. Calista used this chance to make her presence known.

"E-excuse me. Would you mind if I accompanied you?" She looked determined to help. _That, and the fact that this is a chance to see the world that she can't miss. _Everyone agreed, though Dagran was a bit hesitant. Mirania used the moment to tease Zael about his feelings for the young girl, leaving him stuttering. When Dagran gave the ok, she bounced off happily. Dagran pulled Ashlya, Zael, and me to him when everyone left.

"It would probably be best if we kept Calista's identity secret for now. I doubt she wants the attention. Zael, you should look for any leads about where the rest of the Gurak fleet are heading."Zael nodded and when Dagran left Ashlya held up a sack, smiling.

"Here, this is from Mirania. It should be enough for the both of us." She handed it to me and I was surprised by how much it weighed.

"I'll have to thank her next time I see her. By the way, are you the one who made breakfast this morning?" She scratched the back of her head and grinned, looking abashed.

"Yeah. I made it and then pretended I didn't know who had cooked. Don't tell anyone though! I do have an image to keep up. Speaking of food, are you going to help me prepare lunch? Also did you apologize to Yurick?"

"I can try to help, but I doubt it'll be much. And yeah… It was very awkward since I had to explain why I went off…" She chocked down a laugh and I gave her a slight push for finding amusement in my humiliation. We headed down to the galley, a small thing with the bare essentials.

"Luckily they had enough food to last us for a few days, but if we don't dock somewhere within a week, we'll be resorting to eating wood." She pulled out some fish from the icebox and began to season it then sliced it into cubes.

"Could you fetch me a bucket of salt water and a bucket of fresh water? I'll need it to clean the dishes and to make this stew." She put a large heavy pot onto the stove with a locking top onto the stove and put some olive oil in it to heat up. I left to grab the water and when I had returned she was placing chopped onions and garlic into the oil to sauté then parsley. I helped chop a tomato, which she threw in next, along with the paste of a tomato that had been cooked in the sun on wooden boards until it was thick. She added shellfish stock when the other ingredients had mixed together and then white wine for flavor and the fish. She locked the top on the pot to prevent spilling while the stew simmered and the delicious smell wafted through the air.

"What is that heavenly smell? Some kind of fish stew?" Ashlya whipped around to find Mirania standing in the doorway, sniffing the air. She wandered over to the stove and tried to steal a bite, but her hand got swatted with a wooden spoon.

"Did you make this Ashlya? It smells so good that I can barely think straight! Should I tell everyone that you cooked lunch?"

"What, Ashlya can cook? Are you the one who made breakfast?" We all turned to see that Dagran had joined us in the already cramped cooking area. Ashlya was next to him in a second, holding a pretty scary looking knife.

"You won't tell anyone about what you saw here, isn't that right?"

"Now Ashlya, no need to be rash. I won't tell anyone. However I can't guarantee that you won't be found out." As soon as the words left his mouth, Yurick had entered the room.

"Ok, people need to get out. I think we've reached capacity." My voice was drained out by Yurick's.

"There's a storm brewing. Just thought you should know. Smells good in here." He was still avoiding my eyes, but at least he wasn't trying to fry me with his magic. _Why do I have a feeling that tomorrow's training is going to be terrible… _

"Hey Dagran, I found a secret compartment in the Capitan's quarters. When Zael entered the room everyone was pushed closer together. Ashlya was holding the knife she had in her hand above her head, to prevent her from accidently stabbing anyone, Dagran was pushed into Mirania, and I fell towards Yurick, who caught me before my face fell into the floor. _He's really good at avoiding eye contact._

"Everyone, get out!" Ashlya's boisterous voice cut through the chatter and she started to push people with her unarmed hand out the door.

"Oh, isn't the food done now?" Ashlya handed out bowls full of the stew in an attempt to get everyone out of the kitchen.

"Yurick, what was that about a storm? It totally clear outside." Dagran stood outside of the entrance eating the soup and I heard Ashlya mutter about how they were like a pack of hungry coyotes.

"Just because it's clear for now doesn't mean that one's not about to strike. You can tell by the wind. We need to shorten the sails. It's easier to reef early and ahead of the storm. It will balance the boat during the gusts. We need to slow the ship down to help prevent capsizing. When the storm hits we need everyone to be near the center of the ship to keep it balanced and to make sure no one gets washed over." As he spoke the clouds started to become ominous and moved faster.

"Right. Well then let's follow Yurick's lead. We don't want to lose anyone to the sea." The group of mercenaries and a few civilians went to help get the boat prepared for the upcoming storm, while Ashlya and I shepherded the rest to the interior of the ship. The sound of thunder permeated the air and then the noise of heavy rain.

"That hit really fast… We should probably go see if they need our help on the deck." I was as amazed as Ashlya was and we rushed back up to help. When we opened the door we were pelted by raindrops.

"Hey, Mana, if you run in the rain, do you still have to take a bath?" I rolled my eyes at her joke before spotting Yurick.

"Do you need any help?" He looked at me wearily before handing me a rope.

"Hold on to this. When I tell you to pull, pull and when I tell you to slacken the rope do it. Otherwise the sail might rip." He ran off, dragging my sister behind him to assign her a job and they disappeared from my sight within seconds. _This rain is ridiculous! _It was hitting my eyes, causing them to sting and I could barely hear Yurick yelling out orders.

"Mana, pull now!" I pulled down on the rope with as much strength that I could, securing the sail. The sound of the waves crashing into the hull was earsplitting and the vessel lurched to and fro, causing a sickening sensation. I swallowed back the sensation, wishing for more of the ginger tea to ease my upset abdominal. A pair of hands appeared above mine, pulling on the rope harder, as I felt someone another body against mine.

"Make sure to keep it taut. And the best way to concur sea sickness is to not think about it." He continued to help pull on the rope until I didn't feel as woozy.

"How did you notice that I wasn't feeling well again?" I looked back at him and noticed that his usually well groomed hair was in disarray.

"It's pretty easy to tell when you're upset, or excited, or sick. You start to shot out sparks. You didn't even notice did you? Now concentrate on keeping the rope tight. I'm going to check on everyone else." _I spark!? What the hell does that mean?! _ I watched his retreating outline until the rain obscured it when I heard yelling.

"The hull is damaged and water is seeping in, guv! We've done all that we can to cover some of the 'oles but more keep poppin' up! What should we do, guv?" The man that we first saved on this ship was standing next to the lift's doors, panicked.

"Dammit!" Yurick rushed over to the man and disappeared down the emergency ladder to try to fix some of the damage that the waves were inflicted on the ship. The wind seemed like it was picking up and the pellets of water were hitting harder as we tried to keep the boat from tipping over or sinking. Then suddenly it stopped, like it had never happened.

"I think we're in the eye of the storm." Dagran's strong voice carried over the wind and I watched in amazement as the sun broke through the clouds. The horizon was still dark and the clouds were racing. The white haired mage came back up after a few peaceful minutes.

"We're halfway through this squall. It might have broken up by the time we hit the other side of the eye. On top of the damage from the attack, the waves are breaking the ship down. It will need to be repaired as soon as this is over, otherwise we won't make it to the Gurak stronghold afloat."

"Very well. Once this storm has passed I'll have Zael look for some land." The wind started to pick up again as we hit the edge again and the rain resumed.

"Loosen up on the ropes everyone!" We obeyed him and the boat began to move through the last bit of storm. Alternating between pulling and slackening the lines we soon pushed through the remaining thunderous clouds. When the sun started to cut through the clouds I let out a sigh of relief. Looking around the deck I noticed how much water got into the boat and suddenly realized how soaked I was. Water sloshed out of my boots, a mixture of the salty sea water and the fresh rain. A light drizzle was all that was left of the storm. _Well at least I'm not in that silly maid outfit. It's a good thing Ashlya brought extra clothes too. Because I do believe that we're going to have to change._

"I really hope that I never have to go through that again." Ashlya was trudging through the water on the deck towards me, her now short hair dripping wet. She wrung out her shirt in hopes to dry it slightly, but recognized that it was futile.

"Let's get changed into something dry. We don't want anyone catching a cold. Zael, can you see any islands nearby? We need to drop anchor." Zael looked out into the horizon and pointed out a small island. We steered the ship towards it and moored down in the cove.

"It's so beautiful here!"

"Well it's good that you like it, because we'll be here for a few days while the ship's being repaired." Dagran crossed his arms and looked out into the forest that was taking over the striking island. I left him to his thoughts and went down into the bunks to change into new clothes. When I got down there I found Yurick pacing and Mirania intensely staring at a peculiar white bud. They left the room, both looking agitated, and I slid my sodden garments off. They plopped onto the floor with a slushing sound and I swiftly replaced them with dry ones that Ashlya loaned me. _Speak of the devil… _She walked in, still soaked to the bone.

"Ah, that was terrible." She kicked her boots off and started stripping out of the wet cloths as rapidly as possible.

"It wasn't that bad. I actually thought it was kind of exhilarating." She shot me a look of disbelief. She shook her head and then slouched down on her cot.

"Well, if you think so. I'm going to take a nap now. I feel exhausted. You should probably rest too." She cuddled with her pillow, adjusting until she was comfortably and I had to agree with her. The adrenaline rush that the storm had cause was starting to wear off. I sat down on my bed and started to stretch, my back popping. I went to adjust my neck then my fingers before crawling under the blankets, content on taking a nap. My eyes closed and my mind started to go blank as I let myself slip into a light sleep.


	6. Chapter 6: Doppelgangers Suck

Sorry for how long it took to update! I've been super busy due me moving out of my apartment and I got a new job (Finally!). But now that everything is somewhat settled I should be updating more often again. For this chapter I did Yurick's first (It makes more sense to me in this order because I'm slightly insane xD).

As an added bonus, here's what my friend wrote for this story as a joke (I didn't tell her really anything about what I was writing): And then they had super awesome sex and it was hot and stuff lol roflcopters yoloamirite the end.

So without farther ado, I present chapter six!

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Probably never will, but on the bright side I can make fanfiction to add in anything I want!

It felt like I had just closed my eyes when Dagran burst through the sleeping quarters. I groaned slightly in anger from being awaken, but hushed when he looked at me with concern written on his face. I sat up to look at him, waiting for him to explain the situation.

"Have you seen Yurick or Zael?" At this point Mana was awake and we both looked at him, confused at the sudden questions.

"I can't find either of them on the boat."

"We haven't seen them. We've been napping since we landed."

"Well, are you two willing to accompany Marina and myself to find them? Yurick seemed rather keen on checking out something on the island. Hopefully nothing has happened to the two." He seemed frazzled at the disappearance of the duo.

"Of course we'll help look! It would be good if we stuck together, since we don't know what is on this island." I pulled the sheets off of my legs and stood up, grabbing my sword. Mana slid off her bed and grabbed her pouch of first aid. We met up with Mirania on the white shore and looked for any clue to point us in the direction of the missing members.

"It looks like they went this way." Mana was bent down, examining two sets of footprints. They wrapped around the shoreline, disappearing around the cove and into what appeared to be a cave.

"Ugh, not another cave!" It seemed like every time we went into a cave something bad happened, without fail. I readied my sword and took up the rear while Dagran lead on, leaving the two Mana and Mirania in the middle, chatting about different healing herbs. The air was damp and smelled of mildew and shadows danced across the walls, while the creatures in the cavern chattered at our disturbance. A few bats fluttered out of our way angrily, yet it sounded like there was something larger lurking in the cave.

"What's that noise? It seems like it's getting closer." It sounded like something was scraping against the rocky floor. _A lot of something. _We entered a small open area and it was like the sound of scuttling was coming from everywhere. Something large fell from a stalactite, causing a loud crash, than another one joined its mate.

"Oh! I wonder what those would taste like boiled."

"Mirania, I don't think now is the time or the place!" The giant crab like monsters charged at us and I brought my blade up as one of the crabs brought its claw down in an attempt to slice me open. I buckled down from the weight and pushed away before I was crushed. Crouching down, I waited for the right moment. The crab lifted up, about to strike again, and I used the moment that it was off balance to rush it, swinging my sword into its legs, causing it to fall onto its back. I jumped onto its exposed belly and began to stab at it, aiming for the heart. It knocked me off, gashing me in the process, and suddenly my body felt like it was on fire. I fell down, grasping the gash on my arm. A purple liquid oozed out of the wound; a foul smelling liquid that was as thick as the blood it was mixing with.

"Ashlya, hurry and enter one of my heal circles. The poison will kill you at a steady pace." I heeded Mirania' advice and ran as fast as I could to her circle. My head was spinning and my eyesight was blurry by the time I stumbled over there. The magic pushed the ooze back out of my wound and out of my blood and the tear in my arm mended itself, leaving the lightest of scars.

"Damn crab. I'll make you pay for that." My balance restored itself once the venom was out and I prepped my sword once more, determined to finish this battle. A crash of thunder emitted throughout the room as Mana threw her own incantation, hitting the crab Dagran was fighting head on. It turned, focusing its attention on its newest attacker. It shot its toxin at her, and I pushed her out of the way, taking the shot. It seeped into my skin and the affects were immediate. The room was spinning and I rushed back to Mirania's healing magic. My vision was becoming black around the edges and I fell into the circle. I felt an arm wrap around me, holding me up as the magic did its job.

"You didn't have to do that Ashlya! It was reckless!"

"It's part of the rulebook for being the older sister, Mana! It specifically says that I have to protect any younger siblings from danger." I smiled up at her and straightened up, feeling strength course through my blood as the toxin left my system again. Dagran jumped into the circle, looking clammy and huffing.

"These damn things are annoying." The venom worked its way back out of the swordsman and we both rushed back into the fight, flanking one of the crabs. I knocked out its feet and when it fell onto its back Dagran jumped onto its gut, impaling it with his sword. Another crash of thunder echoed through the room as Mana electrified it, leaving it convulsing. The soft innards fell out of the monster Dagran had mounted and it squealed in pain as it bled out. In a last effort attempt to kill at least one of us it spewed its toxins around the room. The ooze hissed as it hit the floors and walls and Mirania casted another ring of healing sorcery. We leaped into it, forcing any of the disgusting liquid back out of our bodies.

"We should get moving before any more of those things decide to show up."

"Dagran, I think we should take some of this meat. I'm sure it would taste absolutely divine!"

"Mirania we don't have time. Once we get back, I'll buy you as many crabs as you want."

"Dagran, are you sure you want to do that? You remember what happened last time you offered to buy her food, don't you?" He sighed and we continued to move through the cave, squeezing through the passageways, until we entered a large opening. Light poured into the area from large holes in the ceiling and in the middle was a decaying ship.

"Well, let's get going." We entered the wreck through a hole in its hull, the wood creaking and threating to break under the pressure of our combined weight. Dagran carefully picked his way through the rotting planks, leading the party. I jumped in surprise at the sound of giggling in my ear. Whipping around I found no one.

"Did you guys hear that?" I calmed my heart back down and turned back to the group in front of me, who were looking at me nervously.

"We didn't hear anything. Maybe you're just becoming paranoid. The only thing that is probably here, other than Yurick and Zael, would be crabs." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to calm my frayed nerves. _Probably just the wind blowing through holes. Or at least I hope so… _We continued down the hallway, looking for any sign of the two missing mercenaries. I began to hum a melody I had heard a while ago in hopes to make the shipwreck less eerie, keeping a hand on my sword the whole time. Another giggle and the sound of footsteps ran through the walls of the hallway, causing my heart to skip a beat. The mixture of the giggling, the creaking, and darkness was starting to make me see things, the shadows began to dance, and I began to chew my lip anxiously.

"Dagran, fuck this ship." He chuckled and suddenly the sound of Zael's voice leaked through the floor.

"They must be under us. Let's try to find a way down." We followed Dagran's lead, running through the passageway until we entered an open room.

"Let's spread out and search for a way to get down there." We began to search the floors, looking for some kind of opening, the floorboards groaning in protest under us.

"Dagran, there's a trapdoor over here." We went towards Mirania's voice, finding her crouched down and wiping dust off of the opening. Dagran ripped the door open, rust breaking off it as it protested against being opened after years of not being used.

"This should lead us straight into the room that Yurick and Zael are in." Dagran and I jumped down into the room and got the lovely surprise of almost getting cooked by Yurick's magic. He managed to change the course of the magic right as he threw it when he realized it was us.

"That attack was a little preemptive, don't you think?" Zael gave us an apologetic look at my comment.

"Dagran, Ashlya, why are you here? Mana and Mirania too!"

"Why am I here? Why are you here?" _I guess Dagran isn't too pleased with being shot at._

"We were worried about you. I can't have my teacher dying on me yet! Who else is going to teach me?" Yurick looked away, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. _Well that's odd. Usually he's a lot cockier than this. _

"Well, Yurick? Are you gonna tell them why we're here?" Dagran saved the mage from explaining his reasons, allowing him some privacy.

"If he wants to tell us, he'll tell us." I voiced my agreement with Dagran when Zael began to push the fire user into telling his reason. Dagran looked at the pair of doors, assessing them.

"It's pretty narrow up ahead. Let's spilt into two teams. Zael, which door do you want to take?" He decided on the left one after a few seconds of mentally debating and playing Eeny Meeny Miny Moe. "Alright. Mana, Yurick, and Zael, take the left. Ashlya, Mirania, and I will take the right." I Gave Zael and Yurick a look that screamed 'If Mana gets hurt I'm going to punch you into next week', then headed to the door on the right. The room smelled of decay and mold, damp and stagnating. I gagged slightly at the stench and regained my composure, following Dagran through the tight hall. He abruptly stopped, and I peered over from the back of the line to find that barrels were blocking our path.

"We'll have to destroy them to go any further. Ashlya, do you think you can help me?" I vaulted over Mirania to help with the task, pulling out my blade. Together we bashed at the barrels until they could not take any more abuse. They crumbled under our joined assault, granting assess to a new room.

"Hey Dagran, look at this." I pointed at a wall that looked more flimsy than the surrounding ones. Giving it a swift kick, it gave in, revealing a hidden room. We entered and I found another wall that gave way to my boot. A path opened up to us, leading to a door. Dagran opened it, and when we stepped in a giant crab attacked us immediately.

"Ugh, not again." _These things are damn annoying. _It swung with one of its claws and I rolled out of the way of the attack and around to its rear, avoiding its maw. It responded with trying to spray me with poison, but after the first encounter I had with the crabs, I was prepared. Dodging out of the way of the vile liquid I assaulted its hind again. Dagran took its attention off of me, allowing me to finish of the oversized crustacean. Its blue blood spilt onto the rotting floor, seeping through the cracks.

"You're getting better. Though, have you considered dual wielding?"

"It's never really crossed my mind to try." I looked around the room to find the next exit was covered with barrels.

"Well, let's get to work." Dagran and I began to chop at the barrels until they broke, Looking around the next room we found Yurick, Zael, and Mana waiting on the other side and between us several giant crabs. I stuck my tongue out at my sister and lunged at the nearest crab at Dagran's signal just as Zael slashed at one, taking it by surprise. The rest of the crabs turned to us, hoping for a meal. The fight started immediately. I slashed at one of the legs on a crab, cutting it off, and it clicked its mandibles in anger and pain. I slid underneath it, dragging my sword across its armored stomach until I reached its back. A fire attack hit it just as I began to wail on it, granting me a fiery boost against it. The fire on my blade began to cook its soft tissue. _It actually smells kind of good. Oh god, I'm becoming Mirania! _It squealed in pain then fell to the floor, dead. I moved on to the next crab, which was being shocked by my sister's magic. It moved stiffly, trying to break out of the paralyzing grip of the spell, and I used its weakness to hack into its shell. The strangely colored blood splattered around the room with each swing I took. It whipped around, knocking me back with one of its claws, indicating that it was in control of its movements again. I hit the ground and rolled back onto my feet, barely making it back up in time to guard against one of its huge claws. I rolled around it again, slicing up into its weak spot. It fell down, lacking enough blood to move, and soon it passed away. Yurick shot one of the remaining crustaceans, cooking it inside its own shell. The last monstrous creature was taking down by Zael, who had slashed at it from behind a fallen support beam. All of its legs had been cut off during the attack, making it bleed out onto the floor.

"Is this the ship's name? It's so dirty, I can't read it." He ran his hand across the dirty emblem of two seahorses, trying to make out letters that might give away the ship's title.

"There's no need to read it. I already know. This is my father's ship." A pained look crossed Yurick's face and we turned to look at him as he went to explain the story behind his childhood and his father. His face went from grief to anger as his story went on. Then back to sadness as he revealed the fate of his mother.

"Yurick, Forget the rumors. What do you believe? Did he run away?"

"Yeah, Yurick. You shouldn't listen to rumors. Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people. There's no way we can determine what happened unless we keep looking around." I agreed with Mana on this one. Rumors were almost always baseless. He nodded at Mana's logic.

"I don't know. But I have to find out." We began to look around the large room in hopes of finding a way to the captain's quarters. I was starting to give up hope, chalking this room up as a dead end, when a shout came from my blue haired sister. We gathered around her to find that she had found a ladder leading up.

"How did I miss that?" I narrowed my eyes at the ladder like it had done some kind of offense to me.

"Mostly, because you have observation problems." I gave her a light punch on the arm for the slight and we began to climb up the ladder. Another fit of giggles echoed through the air when we reached the top and I searched around the room, looking for any signs of life.

"Did you hear that?" Apparently Zael was the only other person to hear the strange sound, as no one else was looking around like a crazy person. We continued down the hall when a delightful smell wafted through the air.

"What's this smell?" Zael looked around confused as the rest of us sniffed the air.

"I can't smell anything…" We ignored his infamous lack of smell, turning to look at Mirania when she listed the food like she was a culinary master.

"Even I can't do that. And I love cooking… I mean, cooking is for foolish fools!"

"Ashlya, you might as well give it up. Everyone knows how much you like cooking. Though, I doubt they know that you like sewing and gardening too." I tried to cover her mouth before more of my secret traits ruined my image.

"Mana, I have an ego to maintain here!"

"Did you know that she's really good at drawing?" I felt myself flushing, something rare for me, at my sister's relentless teasing. I started to pinch her cheeks, hoping to shut her up.

"OK, let's go! We should investigate the food!" I diverted the attention off myself before Mana told them anymore of my hidden hobbies.

"Right!" We entered a room, finding a large table filled with various types of mouthwatering food. I reached for a roll, only to get my hand smacked by Mana.

"That means someone's still alive!" I wanted to eat some so bad, and glancing at Mirania I could tell that she wasn't opposed to eating too. Dagran gave us both a stern look before telling us that it might be poisoned.

"But it looks so good Dagran!" I knew he had a point, but damn I was hungry! I walked up to the mirror, touching it suspiciously. The cold feeling of the glass eased my mind little and I jumped slightly when Yurick ran out of the room, yelling for his father. _I guess I can relate. This whole journey was brought on because we didn't want our father to leave without us. _We entered a new room after following the white haired mage to find him crouched down next to a skeleton. My heart went out for the kid and I saw a tear fall down Mana's face for him when he picked up his father's journal. He began to read it, only to be abruptly stopped by a thump behind a red curtain. Zael went up to the thick fabric, bringing it back to reveal a pristine looking mirror.

"That mirror is suspicious as fuck." The mutter was to myself and Mirania gently nodded in agreement. Zael began to check himself, lifted his sword up. Whatever was in the mirror stumbled with the sword and Zael leaped back.

"That's not me!" The imposter Zael lifted his sword, attacking whoever was foolish enough to not move away from the glass. Unfortunately that was me. He brought the sword down, going through the glass and slicing my arm. I managed to block most of the attack, but the pain from the slice was enough for me to leap to Mirania, waiting for her to cast her circle while putting pressure on the wound.

"How are we supposed to hit this thing?" My question was soon answered when Yurick and Mana threw spells at it, making it leap and dance in the circles.

"We want it to move differently than the real Zael." After a few times of this, the doppelganger got fed up with the abuse. A crack appeared in the flawless glass, then another until the whole reflection broke and the crystal shattered onto the floor. Shards of it flew through the air while a black demon jumped out, giggling manically. It grabbed onto Zael's head, beating and biting down on his cranium.

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" He pulled at it, but it was insistent on staying. He ripped it off, pulling a few clumps of hair along with it, and blood dripped down from its assault on his head. It spilt into six different people, mirroring ourselves and began to run through the room, mingling with us.

"Dammit, who's who? Dagran, watch it!" I dodged out of the way as Dagran's sword came inches from my nose. Chaos filled the room as we tried to fend off the imposters. I got hit by a lightning spell as soon as I steadied myself from Dagran's attack; a painful surge that left my body numb and unresponsive, and the only thing I could do was scream in pain. The smell of singed hair came to my nostrils as the hair on my arm burnt away from the electricity. A Zael with red eyes noticed my vulnerability, and I tried to move away from his attack, but my body wasn't yielding to my brains pleads to move. The static coursed through my muscles, leaving them painful and twitching. The large sword swung down, aiming for any vital organ and right as it was about to deliver what would surely be my death sentence an identical sword stopped its path. The real Zael fought off with the spirit; with every swing that it took Zael would block and counter attack, whittling at its arms, legs, and torso. The creature would scream in protest with each hit, louder each time, until Zael took his blade and buried it deep inside the double's chest. Its heart was pierced and immediately blood rushed out. Its muscles stopped moving as they screamed for the oxygen carried by the blood that was now seeping out of the wound. I tried to move my mouth to thank him finding it was able to move, albeit stiffly. My voice was raw and sandy sounding. Before I had a chance to see if the rest of my limbs would move Zael hoisted me up and ran to what was hopefully a friendly heal circle. The intense pain ebbed away as the shock faded and the spasms stopped as the damage done to my nerves healed.

"There has to be a way to tell them apart!" Zael was huffing beside me in the heal circle and I noticed the minor wounds that he had gained from this battle began to stitch themselves close with the help of the magic.

"Their eyes have a weird red tint to them. That should help a little. The big problem is keeping them from casting spells. I really don't want to be hit by another magic attack and if they keep healing themselves then we're doomed." A light went off in Zael's eyes when I had finished.

"That's it! Mirania, start casting Leaf spells! I'll diffuse them, which will cause them to be cursed with Silent. A cloud should appear around their heads, making it easier to tell who's who. Mana, I need you to take over healing. Yurick, I need you to blast anyone that has that silent on them. Ashlya, Dagran, and I will take the attention off you three." _He's beginning to think like a true leader. _I prepared myself to jump out of the white circle. As soon as Mirania casted the green spell I bounded out, heading for who I assumed was a fake Yurick. My guess paid off as a black cloud covered the spirit's face when Zael diffused the Leaf spell. I attacked it with all my strength, holding nothing back. It tried to block my sword with its dagger, a scrawny piece of metal that broke in half on contact. Without its magical attacks it was defenseless. I stabbed upwards, impaling it underneath its jaw. The tip of my blade peeked through the top of the pretender's skull. I slid my blade back out when it stop thrashing and it fell to the floor, brains oozing out of the hole in its crown. Its jaw hung awkwardly from where my sword had severed the tendons in it. I turned just as Dagran's blade came down, aiming for my exposed back. I narrowly moved out of the way, and apparently it was expecting this. It changed the direction of its sword, hitting me in the stomach with the blunt side of the blade. The air rushed from my lungs like a gale and I fell down to the ground huffing for oxygen. I managed to bring my blade up to block and rolled away from it. I jumped back onto my feet the instant I finished the roll, lungs still burning. I looked around for the Dagran faker to find that it was gone.

"This is the last one!" The group had cornered the doppelganger that was pretending to be me. _Where'd the fake Dagran go? _I scanned the room to find its corpse on the other side of the room, burns covering its flesh. _How…? Maybe I didn't see it right. There's no way it could attack me from the other side of a room. _I ran to where the others had the last spirit cornered and started to attack it, joyful that this battle was almost done. The dark haired swordsman stabbed the replica of me through the stomach, leaving a gaping hole through its gut. The look in his eyes was unforgiving, a terrifying glare of hatred. The doppelganger fell to the floor as its organs spilt out onto the wooden planks and the floor soaked up the blood. Its eyes were glazed over in pain and its mouth was formed into a scream, blood gurgling out of it. Dagran plunged his sword into its neck, decapitating it in one hit, and putting it out of its misery. Blood splashed up onto his face giving him the look of a maniac, his eyes full of a dark emotion. A shudder passed through my body at his display of abhorrence. _It's just the light… _The though was meant to make me feel better, a thought to comfort myself that was unfortunately not working. Yurick headed back to the bones of his deceased father, picking the journal back up to continue reading out of it. His voice cracked a few times as he read the lines written on the paper, a tear slid down his cheek. A small twitch came from Mana as her hand went up to wipe the droplet, only to have it shoot back down, a slight flush coming to her face. _So they were attacked by a monster? _His hand ghosted over a picture of his family that had yellowed with age. He fell to his knees, another tear falling down his face. My sister took a hesitant step towards him only to step back when he stood up.

"I finally learnt the truth about my father. Thank you." He gave the most sincere smile that I had ever seen him give, one that was stripped of the usually cynical and pessimistic look that was usually present.

"Well, let's head back to the ship." We began the trek back to our temporary home, crossing through the rotting planks once more. We soon were hit by the smell of fresh air, deliciously sweet smelling compared to the scent of mildew. The sand crunched underneath our feet, a background noise to cover my silence as the rest of the group chatted animatedly. I couldn't find it in me to speak for my mind was too clouded by thoughts about the fight. The pieces didn't match up for the battle against the doppelgangers, it was like I was being attacked by both the Dagrans. _But why would he attack me. We're friends, right? _I tried to push the thoughts into the back of my mind as our commandeered ship came into sight. _I'm so tired. I think that I'm going to go finish my nap once I get back. _I let out a tired sigh and we climbed up the ladder to the deck of the ship.

"So Zael, what were you talking about earlier when you said you found a map?" Dagran's question pushed the fogginess out of my head and my curiosity perked up.

"Follow me! I found it in the captain's sleeping quarters." He led us into the sleeping area of the captain who loved to monologue and lifted a map from a desk in the corner of the room. Something in me felt like slamming my head against the wall when I saw the chart. My hand lashed out and my fingers found his cheek, pinching the fleshy tissue in between them.

"Zael, this is a map of the empire, you dolt!" I continued to squeeze his check in aggravation.

"O'm swowwy. I thowt it whas swomting ewlse." I let go of his now red cheek.

"Zael, do you know how to read a map?" I looked at him inquisitively and his already his other cheek matched his assaulted one.

"Do you want me to teach you? I'm fairly good at reading them."

"Could you? I'd really appreciate it! Can we start now?" His face light up at the prospect of learning the skill and I nodded and smiled at his enthusiasm. I laid out the map that he found on the table and began to show him how to read the map, explaining the key and how different landscapes were drawn on it. As I taught him, Mirania hovered in the corner of the room, looking like she wanted to ask something. The shuffling kept making me look to the back of the room and eventually I had to ask.

"Mirania, did you need something from Zael?" She nodded softly and approached us calmly.

"I was just wondering if I could borrow him for a while. I'm sorry for interrupting" I shook my head, indicating that it was no problem and smiled.

"It's no big deal, so don't worry about it. I'll go take a nap. I'm still fairly tired." I stretched out, popping my back in the process and watched the two walk out of the room. I followed suit, heading down into where I had set up my bed and plopped down onto it, barely bothering to take my boots off before passing out.


	7. Chapter 7: All the Feels

I am so so sooooo sorry for how long this took to update. Life got a wee bit hectic between work and family so please forgive me! And without any further ado here's chapter seven!

I don't own anything but my characters! If I did I wouldn't be working where I do haha!

Chapter Seven: I can't contain all my feels!

I pushed a strand of my blue hair back, contemplated the best way of waking my dozing sister up. She was curled up on in her cot, looking content in her recently obtained deep sleep. I gently shook her to joist her from her sleep and she warily groaned, unfocused eyes fluttering open.

"This better be pretty freaking important. Is the ship on fire?" I rolled my eyes at her whining.

"Get up you lazy bum. Zael and Mirania want to go onto the island to investigate the forest, so stop your complaining."

"That wasn't whining. TTHHIISS IISS WWHHIIINNNIIINNGG." She dragged out each syllable in her last sentence and I felt my eye twitch slightly. I began to rub my hands together, gathering up static and I shocked her. Causing her to jump up in surprise, yelping slightly and rubbed the spot on her arm where I had touched her while glaring.

"Fine, fine, I'll get up. Why are we checking out the island anyways?"

"Not sure. Mirania was just very insistent on going out and Dagran finally gave in to Zael's begging. It seems like only Zael knows why she wants to go out." She pulled herself out of the thick blankets; a groan escaped her lips as the colder air hit her. I watched as she stretched out and she swung her legs over the ledge of the bed to start putting on her boots, lacing them up with a slight sense of urgency. A hand went up to her chest and a look of confusion passed over her face. Leaning to the side of the cot that was next to the bed she pulled up a bra and chuckled.

"I forgot where I put it for a second!" I lolled my head and had to join her in her chuckling. She lifted up her shirt to put it on and grabbed her sword and a jacket whilst standing up, signaling that she was ready to go.

"I hope that this is a walk in the park. All I've wanted for the past few hours is a nap." A yawn broke her words up midsentence and we started walking to join the rest of the party on the shore. When we touched down on the glittering sand Mirania beamed at use, glad that I got had managed to convince my sister to accompany us. _The more the merrier. _Ashlya smiled back at the mage.

"I'm so glad that both of you are coming. I am unsure of what might be waiting for us in the forest." I saw the sword users ready their blades and I pulled out my dagger, calming my mind for whatever lay ahead.

"So why are we going out there, by the way? Mana never did tell me." Mirania looked at my sister with a little uncertainty before answering.

"I believe that this forest still has its guardian. I want to ask it about the land's decay." Ashlya nodded at the soft spoken mage. I dared a glance at Yurick and felt myself go hot as soon as I did. My mind flashed back to earlier, when we we're on his father's ship. The look on his face when he was reading his father's last words was heartbreaking and it took all of my self-control to not embrace him. I wanted to stop any pain that he felt and when he turned and smiled at us it was like my heart paused for a moment. I quickly diverted my eyes before he noticed my staring and a wave of relief swept over me as we started moving. Dagran had apparently been talking while I was zoned out because everyone nodded at him. I followed suit to avoid being noticed for my lack of attention. _It's been happening more often. I wonder if I'm getting sick. _The thought of being sick made me nervous. I despised being sick, since it left me weak and I usually vomited when I was ill, even if it was a small cold. I glanced back up at the white haired man, glad that his back was facing me. _I wonder when my next lesson will be. _I let the random thoughts float through my head while walking. We found a deer trail, a scrawny looking path. We followed it for a good while, trees giving the trail a claustrophobic feeling; the trees were thick enough to block out the natural light. Yurick held in his hand a flame, lighting the way for the rest of us. He abruptly stopped when the trail suddenly split. On the right the small deer trail continued in the deeps of the woods; on the left it branched out into a trail that looked oddly manmade.

"We should probably go left. I don't think that this trail is going to lead us anywhere." Yurick pointed at the cobbled road to the left. Our feet sounded obnoxiously loud as we walked down the path and small pebbles broke off from the sudden use after years of neglect. We continued down and soon we broke through the tree line into an open area. A large gate stood between the cliffs, rusted but easily opened. Zael took the lead, pushing the gate open and we followed after him. _It looks almost like a garden. _I spotted a few fountains and several crumbling walls lined the various walkways. _It was probably beautiful once. It still is._

"Wow! This place is just bursting with nature! It's wonderful!" I nodded in agreement and Zael added his agreement.

"I wonder who built all of this." My sister's voice was airy and almost distant sounding. She had a look of awe and her body language screamed that she wanted to explore the area. Flower petals began to fall all around us, almost like the snow back in our village. Zael held out his hand then turned his attention on Mirania, holding one of the soft flowers in his hand.

"These are the flowers you showed me?" They wondered over to one of the fountains and I decided to give them space. Zael's words drifted lightly in the wind and I picked up a few off Mirania's words. _So she grew up in the forest? No wonder it looks like she belongs here. And why she's so good at using natural herbs. Her whole childhood she learned about everything in the forest! _I looked at Yurick only to catch his gaze and I quickly averted my eyes, my face burning at being caught staring. _Why am I embarrassed? It's not like I was staring him down! Ugh, what's going on!?_ I looked towards my sister to find her examining a wall. She knocked on it a few times before standing back and giving it a swift kick. It gave in, crumbling under her force. She jogged into the newly opened area and found treasure chests and another fountain. She gave it a strange look before tapping it. The sound of gears whirled and it moved, water sprouting out of it, and a sword was revealed.

"Soldier's pay!" I smiled and was tempted to join her when out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of movement. I turned my attention the movement and saw something white swaying back and forth behind one of the walls. I squinted hoping to make out what it was a little better to find that it was a skeletal arm. I signaled for her to come back to the group and luckily she saw my sign and we regrouped quickly.

"Zael, see if you can lure them out one at a time. There's too many to take on all at once." He nodded and went to the right, hoping to flank the undead warriors. He disappeared from sight and I heard the sound of crashing bones. The rest of the skeleton didn't seem to notice the small ruckus and soon Zael had assassinated all of them.

"They're all taken care of by the looks of it." Dagran nodded and we began to explore the area once more. The sound of breaking walls echoed through the garden and more fountains were turned on, giving more swords. I opened a few chests, finding some material for upgrading and eventually the treasure in the area was cleared out.

"Hey, look at this. This footprint is huge!" I followed Zael's line of sight and Mirania gasped. There was no doubt in her words when she claimed that it was a guardian's footprint. The marks went past another gate, this one covered in vines. At Zael's signal Yurick burnt the parasitic plants off. As they burnt the smell of sulfur hit my nose as a pillar of smoke rose up. The plants fell to the ground, smoldering then completely dying out. The gate itself had turned a slight orange from the heat but the color was quickly returning to its originally gray coloration. With the plants no longer holding it close it swung open. As soon as he did Mirania darted out like one of the racing horses my dad had taken me to see once. _I didn't even think she could move that fast! _Before any of us could stop her she was out of sight.

"Wow. I've never seen Mirania so distracted by something."

"Damn, that kid moves fast! Remind me to never play dobby with her…" I would have laughed at her joke if it wasn't for the fact that she was so far ahead of us that if she ran into trouble there would be no way we could help her. We ran after her to find our path blocked by water. As we approached the edge of the water the land shifted, revealing large platforms.

"They seem stable enough." Ashlya was testing her weight on one of the mossy stages and I looked at them warily. The rest of the group followed my sister's lead and I had no choice but to follow after them. The stands swayed under our weight making the fire mage shout out. I saw Ashlya giggle a little. _She knew that they swayed! That punk! _When we made it to a solid platform my relief was short lived.

"Ugh, we don't have time for this! We need to catch up to Mirania!" Reptids jumped out of the water, almost like they had been expecting us, and vines shot out of the ground, as if they were seeking revenge on the ivy that we had blazed away as Ashlya groaned angrily. One of the plants wrapped around my waist, swinging me around and threating to make me sick whilst tightening its grip around my midsection. A blast of heat hit near my face and the climber dropped me instantly onto the ground. I landed with a thump and the air was knocked out of me but I forced myself to stand.

"You need to be careful."

"How was I supposed to know that plants were going to shot out of the ground and try to kill me? Most plants don't do that Yurick!" I shot back at the man, irate. Even Dagran agreed with me, but he just rolled his eyes at me and I began my incantation, focusing on the reptid mages now that I was out of the range of the mad flora. The sword folk cleaved through the strange vegetation and I casted a bolt of lightning at one of the sorcerers before it had a chance to use its magic. Its muscles yanked violently before its heart stopped beating and it fell to the ground in a heap. I watched it to make sure it wouldn't get back up and moved to the last one only to have it burnt to a crisp before I could even start my chant.

"We'd better hurry up or we won't catch Mirania in time." We nodded and continued on the oscillating rocks. Once we hit the other side of the small lake we were ambushed by a small group of reptids and plants. With a few hits from everyone the small party was taken down, undergrowth retreating back to the soil. A shrill scream filled the air and I held my breath.

"Mirania!" Zael was the first to react to the scream and his voice woke everyone from their trance like state. We ran after the voice and through a small entrance to find her pinned down by a spider that was about to attack; the exits were cut blocked by the sentential like plants. _Oh no… _I turned to find that my sister was frozen stiff. I began to shake her, hoping to remove her from her stupefied state. _I didn't want to resort to this. _I charged up a small shock only to be suddenly knocked off my feet. A sticky web incased my body and I struggled to get free. I heard Mirania scream as the arachnid began to pull her closer and Zael broke free of the web. Using his gale attack he cut the strings that attached us to the spider and I pulled myself free. Moving to help my sister I found her already up; a strange, feral look was in her eye. It was like her fear had pushed her passed her limit. She sheathed her sword, waiting for the spider to come to her and in one swift movement she was behind it, sword raised like she had attacked it. A spurt of blood came out of a wound that seemed to appear from nowhere. The movement was faster than my eye could follow. The spider as stunned by the speed of the attack as I was, but I snapped myself out of it. I began to focus on my spell, hoping the stunned state would last long enough for it to finish but it quickly scurried to the other side of the courtyard, attacking anyone in its way. Dagran was flung into a wall by the monster and Zael continuously tried to maneuver behind it, aiming to attack its unguarded rear. To my surprise Ashlya was charging into the battle, fear forgotten in the midst of self-preservation. I finished my chant right as Zael diffused a fiery circle, making the spider unable to block attacks. I threw my spell at it, stunning it long enough for Ashlya, Dagran, and Zael to surround it. It spun around, knocking everyone back as it shot of webs. It was insistent on taking Mirania, and this time Zael wasn't quick enough to stop it. She disappeared in its gullet and I stood there, speechless. _No wonder Ashlya's terrified of these things! If they could eat an adult whole and come back for seconds than a child is just a snack! _

"We have to get her out of there as quickly as possible! Right now it's storing her inside of it. If we kill it fast enough she should be fine!" Ashlya's experience was paying off and we leaped back into battle, more motivated than ever. It was hit by another combination of fire and electricity, which Zael quickly diffused. Its armor broke for a moment and it was paralyzed from my initial attack, but when the circle diffused a massive amount of static was released into the air, stunning all the smaller spiders around the larger one. The three sword wielders launched into a joint attack pinning it down. Dagran attacked the front, distracting it long enough for Zael and Ashlya to strike it from behind. It tried to change its position to move its weak point away from their assault but they stayed behind it tenaciously, stabbing and slashing at it. I charged another one of my spells and threw it at the spider. The strike hit hard, the sound of thunder was deafening. Discharge sparked off of it while it tried to move its limbs; a fiery attack hit it like a meteor. It tried to scuttle away once more but it was too late. Zael stuck it one more time in its abdomen and that one last strike was too much for its strained body. It collapsed onto the ground, struggling to get back up, and Dagran plunged his sword into the weak area between the thorax and abdomen, slicing it in half. Eventually it ceased its movements and Mirania crawled out of the severed body. She was covered in green goo and looked slightly disgusted yet relieved.

"Thank goodness you got me out! I thought that I was going to be eaten for sure!" She proceeded in trying to get the gunk off and it came out in gooey lumps.

"Well, I'm glad that that's over." Ashlya hunched over while sighing. _Well at least she stopped freaking out. _We rushed into the newly opened path, eager to meet this guardian that Mirania had kept mentioning. The narrow path was incased by the cliffs and soon we came to what almost seemed like a dead end.

"Oh it looks like a dead end! We can't move on and this is the way the footprints lead us!"

"It looks almost like there was a rock slide." My logical statement apparently got Yurick thinking. He ran a hand over the rocks.

"Wait, it looks like a gap in the rocks. Zael, can you break it down? It should be weak right here." He pointed at the spot where there was a gap. Zael to a step back and slammed his foot into the spot. It collapsed and a serene field stretched before us. Flowers bloomed in a carpet of soft white and there petals fell in the wind. The sun beamed down, highlighting a large set of bones.

"Isn't that…?" None of us had the heart to finish Zael's sentence.

"So… This forest is dying too." A single tear ran down her gentle face. I gently touched her arm to comfort her and Ashlya pulled her into an embrace.

"Cheer up! We'll figure this out!" She gave Mirania a reassuring smile. Mirania smiled back at her and went to the bones to pay her final respect to the fallen protector of forest. She knelled down; praying for it, then rose again. We began to walk down the passageways, a slight feeling of despair falling around us. We continued walking, past the lake with the unsound platforms, fighting off a few reptids and crazy vines. The fights helped work out some of the stress and frustration of the day, but they all ended too soon. We soon saw the ship in the horizon and the speed of our walking increased. Ashlya let out a lazy yawn and we climbed up the rope ladder to find Calista waiting for us looking rather frustrated. As soon as Zael lifted himself up over the rail she grabbed him by his ear.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were going onto the island? I would have really liked to have come!"

"I didn't want to put you in any danger…" She pouted at his protectiveness but let go of his ear. He rubbed it gingerly, glad the assault on his lobe was over. She grabbed his hand and hauled him away; both of them had loving grins on their faces. _I wonder if I have ever given that look to someone before. I think I've seen Ashlya give that look before but to whom? Ah, I can't remember._ Ashlya headed back down to the cots, ready to continue her nap. I considered following her when my arm was grabbed.

"Did you think you could get away with not having lessons today? We need to work on your incantations." I almost let out a protest but the look on his eye said that he needed something to distract himself from what he had found out today. I nodded my head and followed him to where we've been having my training. He had dropped his hand off my arm and it accidently brushed against mine for a moment. My heart jumped slightly and I tried to keep my cheeks a normal color. _Why am I acting like this!? _The feeling made me almost nausea yet it was oddly addicting.

"-ell me your incantation." 

"…What?" He hit me on top of the head with his dreaded paper fan.

"I said you need to sit down and tell me what your incantation is. You need to be paying attention if you want to have any progress. Care to tell me what you were thinking about?" My face heated more than it ever has.

"No!" The word came out squeaky.

"Then don't let me catch you not paying attention again. Now tell me your chant."

"wer harkaj di wer guawysverni geou oposs vhira shafaer wux, asta loerchik geou xkhat dout kurjh." As I said the words I felt power bubbling up inside me.

"The Draconic language. Surprising that you know those words. Where did you learn it?"

"Our village has a high respect for dragons. It isn't a large village but it's in a fertile spot so it was consistently sacked back in the days of old, before the Empire. One particular dragon agreed to protect us if in return we gave a tribute of a girl who was musically talented and shared our crops with it. My great grandma was one of the chosen ones actually. It shared many things with our village, included its language and knowledge of the world. It's why my father actually became a knight in the first place. He wanted to see the world that was still struggling to get back on its feet from all the wars to unite it. It was on one of his trips that he met our mom." Yurick looked at me with curiosity and amusement twinkling in his visible eye.

"What?" I suddenly realized that I had been rambling and I felt my face color. I tried to not become too defensive but there was already a very tickled smirk on his face, like he had expected me to blush.

"It's always interesting when you go on a rant. Tell me about how your parents met." He took a seat next to me on the floor.

"What about my lesson?" He shook a hand, obviously deciding to ditch teaching today now that I had apparently attracted his interest.

"Well, it was while my father was still just a knight, a fresh blood really. He was running late for drill practice when, pow, he ran right into my mom! He knocked both of them clean off their feet. My mom had been carrying a basket full of fruit which went flying and the fruit went rolling. My dad went to help her up only to slip on some of the fruit and knock her down again. Eventually he got both of them up and she was taken by his strangeness. He apparently cracked a joke about the fruit and he insistent on paying her back for the produce and invited her to meet him for dinner. According to him he fell in love with her at first sight; according to my mom however her love for him was what she called 'an acquired taste' though you can tell in her eyes that she fell in love with him the moment she saw him too." I smiled at what she had told me when Ashlya and I were younger and had asked. "He ended being really late to his drill meeting and had to stay longer to make up for the lost time. By the time he got out he the sun had already began to set and most places were close but both of them remembered to meet up. She brought a basket full of food and they ate it under a great weeping willow while watching the sun set." I realized that I had said the last part rather dreamily and heat crept up my face briefly. He smiled at me; it was gentle but sad.

"I wish I had stories like that about my parents but I was too young and my mother was too sick. It was a sickness that doctors couldn't heal and I didn't find out until recently what it was. She died of heartache. The disappearance of my father was too much for her to bear." My body acted on its own. I reached out and embraced him. If he didn't want the hug he didn't make a move to get out. His arms slowly wrapped around my waist, like he was unsure of what to do and I felt a something wet slide down my face as a single tear fell down his face. I began to hum a tune my mom had once sung to me while running a hand through his white hair. His tears slowly ceased and he pulled back, face rosy at being in such a venerable state of mind.

"What song is that?" He gave me a look that said that this wasn't going to be discussed, probably ever.

"Just a song my mom used to sing me when I was little." His eyes were still a little watery and I pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket, handing it to him. He took it and dabbed his eyes with it, quickly handing it back.

"Can you sing it for me?" I felt myself turn a little pink. I had never been very confident in my singing skill but the look on his eyes gave me no room to argue. I started off a little shakily but as I went I gained momentum.

"_**The snow won't stick to the weeping willows  
The cold air won't blow open the windows  
You've made it through the storm this far  
You've done this dear, it won't be hard  
The snow won't stick to the weeping willows**_

There will be tomorrow  
the sun will light a sea of sorrow  
Tonight it set and took our friend  
If I could do one thing, I'd bring him back  
Snow won't stick to the weeping willows

Summer was painted on our skin  
and those secrets hidden in our childish lips  
they would die for a kiss

Fall was always left in your eyes  
just a fleck of yellow light  
like the sunrise like the twilight_**"**_

The last note vibrated through the room then fading into nothingness. I allowed myself to look at Yurick and my heart fluttered. _I've never seen him look so open. _He didn't say anything but his look revealed more than he could ever say. His hand began to lift, almost like he was going to touch me but shot back down when Zael burst into the room.

"Hey can you two help me look for a lock that this key might go to? I found it in the room that we couldn't get to earlier." We jumped up to help Zael on his search, searching for anything that looked suspicious. I was knocking on the wall when Zael yelled out.

"Guys look! There's scratching around this cabinet. Maybe it can be moved." He stuck the key into the cabinet and shifted backwards then fell down, hiding itself underneath the floor.

"Well… See Zael, you didn't even need us!" He heartily laughed at my tease and we entered the concealed room prudently. I looked around the room, spotting a map hanging from the wall.

"What's this map?" I wasn't the only one that spotted it.

"Hey, now you can practice your map reading skills Zael!" He smiled but went to the map anyways. Yurick went and gathered the rest of the party and we assembled ourselves around the map once Zael pulled it down and set it onto the table.

"It… It looks like a map of a military base. Am I right?" He looked at Ashlya, a hopeful look on his face that turned to happiness when my elder sister nodded.

"It's hard to believe that they managed to secretly gather so many warships this close to Lazulis Island."

"I agree with Mirania. It's inconceivable."

"Well, a century has passed since the Gurak were banished from the Empire." Dagran added on to Yurick's comment, mentioning that this was the first time that the Gurak were united.

"If we're going to pull this off then we need to find weak points in their fleet. It looks like there's an emergency escape here. It'll be a little hard to see from our side until we are right up on it unless we are looking for it at all times." Ashlya pointed at a point on the map, one that I would have probably missed if I had been looking for it.

"The ship's repairs are almost complete. As soon as we're ready, we'll head out to the Gurak base. So rest up while you can. It'll be a tough battle once we get there." We quit the room and I followed my sister to the kitchen.

"Feed me!"

"Feed yourself Mana!... Actually I take that back. For the love of the gods, don't try to cook anything."

"How am I supposed to get better at cooking if you never let me try? I'm never going to get married if I can't cook!" I pouted at her, hoping that she would give in. She never did let me try to cook on my own, not since the time I gave her food poisoning.

"Good! I'm not ready to have a brother! You better not fall in love anytime!"

"…How would I know if I fell in love?" Her look towards me was a curious one.

"Hmm… Well I guess how to tell is if almost every thought is about him. You want to be there for him, at his worse and best. His smile brightens your day and makes your heart flutter. Everything about him you find basically perfect. You even dream of him. And if you knew that he wouldn't ever be able to love you, you'd let him go. Even if it hurts you worse than any wound to the flesh could ever do." With each word she said her voice got softer and suddenly she stabbed the knife that she had been using to devein and cut off the legs of shrimp into the cutting board, like she suddenly got mad at herself for an unknown reason. She wiped something away from her face then grabbed the knife out of the board and began to cut the shrimp again; there was a distant look on her face and I left her to her thoughts. I began to hum and she joined in, whistling the harmonics. She seasoned the crustacean and cooked it in a pan while making noodles and boiling water. I watched her mix the oil, flour, and eggs then rolled them out to cut them into the noodle shape. She dropped them into the water and worked on making a light sauce. She had stopped her whistling and a melancholy façade had covered her face. Soon the small kitchenette filled with hungry mouths and Ashlya served the food. Once whoever wanted food was served I grabbed a plate of the shrimp pasta. I glimpsed at Yurick's face and saw that his cerulean eye was now focused with determination. He caught my look and gave me a half smile before departing the room. When I glanced back around I saw that everyone was gone and Ashlya was giving me a queer look.

"What?"

"Why were you looking at him like that?"

"Like what?" She pinned me down with a look.

"I don't know! Recently every time I see him it's like my inside turns into slug goo! I think it's just a phase due to hormones." I avoided her gaze. I got up before she could integrate me. _That's the only explanation for what it could be. It'll go away with time. _I headed down to the sleeping quarters, prepared to get some rest before we headed out. The sound of hammering had stopped at some point, signifying that we were about to head out. There was a sudden shift in gravity, proving that we were moving towards our destination. Dagran, Yurick, and Zael leaped over the railing along with some of the humans we had saved and the ship shifted back into the ocean.

"Mana, are you about to head down?" I nodded at my instructor, avoiding his eyes. Now that I had admitted to myself that I was attracted to him it was even harder to look at him. _I'm just physically attracted to him due to my shifting hormones. It'll be gone eventually. _I continued my path to my cot, flopping down on mine as soon as I got to it. I rolled over to my back and pointed my feet up in the air so that I could access my feet. I managed to untie my boots and throw them off.

"You know, it would have probably been easier to just get up and untie your boots." I jolted up and saw my teacher smirking. I slumped back onto my cot and a groan escaped my lips.

"… Thanks for earlier. You didn't have to listen to me sob like that. But I guess as Zael would say: That's what friends are for."

"Yeah….. I'll always be your friend and be there for you." I gently punched his arm but the word 'friend' left a bitter taste in my mouth, even if it my statement was fully true. I took my socks off while ignoring the bad flavor and popped my toes. My bed jolted slightly and I looked over to find my mentor sitting next to me, a book in his hand.

"Here, it's a book about the different elements of magic. It was the first magical tome that I had ever read. I figured you'd enjoy reading it." I gently passed my fingers over the worn leather front, tracing the ancient looking symbols bordering the edges. I opened the book; it was obviously well used, the pages soft and a few slightly torn. I held back the urge to sniff it.

"Thank you. I'll start reading it now." I beamed at him, happy that he was sharing a tangible piece of his past with me.

"You don't have to do it now. I know that you were about to go to sleep." A strand of hair moved in front of his eye and I reached up and pushed it back into its rightful place, not thinking about what I was doing. It fell back out of place and I frowned at it, pushing it back where it should be. I went to push it back when it fell out once more but my hand was stopped by his.

"It's just going to fall back" He brought my hand down with his and gingerly let go of it. He proceeded to flop down on my cot and closed his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm going to take a nap. We need to rest before we get to the Gurak base after all." He didn't even open his eyes when replied to me, choosing only to smirk.

"I know that! Why are you trying to nap in my bed? Where am I supposed to sleep?" My voice got squeakier as my face got redder.

"You can sleep here too. I really don't feel like moving." He pulled me down and I resigned in trying to get him to leave, deciding to just try to fall asleep while being surrounded by his body heat. I closed my eyes and adjusted myself until I was comfortable in his arms. I ended up curled up next to his side with my head on his surprisingly strong chest and his heartbeat pulled me into a gentle sleep. It felt like I had only been asleep for a few minutes though when I heard a shrill scream. Jolting up I tried to get focused on my bearings. Once my eyes adjusted and my mind was cleared of its sleep I found Ashlya standing in the doorway with her eyes narrowed at Yurick, whom had just started to get up.

"We're here. Yurick, can I talk to you real quick?" She gave him a he gave him a strangely sweet smile and ushered me out of the room. I gave him a worried look before rushing past my sister. When I made it to the deck the others had already gathered. After a few minutes Yurick and my sister appeared each with interesting facial expressions. Ashlya seemed like she might murder something and my white haired teacher simply looked amused.

"Well now that everyone is gathered, we should get ready to infiltrate the base. The emergency exit is concealed by an overhanging cliff and we'll have to swim to get to it. We'll bring the ship as close to it as possible and then taking a landing craft. We can't make a big ruckus or else we'll be over cumbered by the enemies." We acknowledged Dagran as he explained his plan to us and soon we dispersed as the ship pulled closer to the impending island. I eased myself near Yurick, deciding to interrogate him about what my sister had said to him.

"So what was that all about between you and Ashlya?" He gave me a sarcastic smile and ruffled my hair.

"Come on, it's time for us to go." He avoided my question and walked away, leaving me confused and following him to the small boat. As we got lowered into the choppy waters I tried to make eye contact with both Ashlya and the sardonic man but both avoided my gaze like I was Medusa so I decided to talk to the other members on our slightly cramped boat.

"So what do you think we'll find here?" My gaze met Dagran's golden one. _He has eyes like a hawk it seems._

"Well, the whole place will more than likely be crawling with scouts and a few generals. Hopefully we can get past most of them without much notice. We should probably abandon this boat now and swim the rest of the way." He directed the sentence at everyone, obtaining their attention and we all climbed out of the boat and the salty water embraced our intrusion. And soon the entrance to the cavern loomed over us; a feeling of foreboding crawled down my spine. I pushed the thought back and soon we moved into the opening, the ship long out of sight now.


End file.
